Blood and Tears
by foxdreamer
Summary: [Complete] The Reiki Tantei is sent to America to...babysit. They are instructed to watch over agoup of eleven human teens. Eventualy everything goes awry and the humans get kidnapped and taken to Demon World. Kurama's past plays a key factor too.
1. Chapter 1

Just to let you know, I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho.

Ch.1

"What!" a boy yelled as he slammed his fists on the table.

"Now, now Yusuke let me explain" Koenma said as he slunk behind a stack of papers that already half covered him.

All four members of the Reiki Tantei were in Koenma's office, expecting to get directions for their next mission. What they got was a bunch of pictures of some human children.

"I think the fool has finally snapped," a short boy with black spiky hair said. He was a fire demon named Hiei.

"Now let's give him a chance," a red-head named Kurama interjected. "Perhaps we just misunderstood. What do you mean these humans are our mission?"

"Well I'm glad at least the fox has some brains," the young ruler said. Things in the small room had quieted down, but Koenma couldn't help but feel that one wrong word would bring them right back up again. "As I was saying, these humans ARE your mission. I'm sure you all know about the Black Market." There was a wince around the room as everyone remembered how Yukina was captured, not to mention the Dark Tournament. "Yes, well, we have been informed about human experiments in the Black Market. The test subjects, as you probably guessed, are these kids. The cruelest thing is that they're being tested right in their own homes, unaware of everything." There was a long pause.

"That doesn't make any sense! How can someone be a lab rat and not even know it?" a tall boy with orange hair asked. This of course was Kuwabara.

"Why would they know?" Koenma asked back. "This certain experiment is testing human wave lengths. In order to do that the humans can't know they're being tested." Everyone in the room just stared at him.

"Oh, I've heard of that. Science labs in the Makai World often run experiments on human wave lengths to figure out what makes them so powerful, and to try to harness them." This statement comes from Botan, a blue-haired spirit guide wearing a pink

Kimono.

"…What are Human wave lengths?" Yusuke asked, confused and entirely missing the point.

"Yusuke, can't you remember anything?" the ruler asked.

"Um, no" came the short reply.

"Huh, Yusuke, remember when I was trying to put you back in your body, but you only had a short amount of time to get some one to kiss you."

"Yes" he said, turning beet-red at the thought of that embarrassing event.

"That was because your **_wave lengths_** were on very different frequencies. Got it!"

"Yeah, yeah," apparently he got the message. There was a long silence until Kurama broke in.

"If you don't mind me asking, what are they doing to test these humans?"

"I was getting to that. There are eleven humans in the experiment-"

"Why eleven?" Yusuke interrupted.

"If you'll give me a minute I will explain everything," he continued. "There are eleven because originally there were ten but another one was added to put over seas."

"Wha-"

"I'm getting to it!" Koenma was tired of getting interrupted. "You see the experiment is testing the connection between similar waves. Ten children with extremely similar wave lengths were placed in different cities, states, and the extra eleventh one was placed over seas in Korea."

"What happened to them?" This came from Keiko; she had forced Yusuke to bring her along, even though she wouldn't be going with them on the mission.

"Surprisingly enough, they all ended up in the same city, most of them are in the same school, but they all know each other one way or another."

"Wow, really!" Both of the girls were wide eyed and interested, but the boys looked like they had seen it before, which they had.

"Do we even know what demons are conducting this experiment?" Yusuke asked.

"Actually we do, why?" Koenma innocently, or as innocently as Koenma gets, blinked a couple of times.

"Then why are we standing around! Let's just go over to that lab and kick the ass of every demon-"

"You can't do that." Koenma interrupted before Yusuke went any farther.

"What, why!" everyone, except Hiei and Kurama, all but shouted at him.

"Well, they haven't done anything illegal yet. They haven't harmed the humans so there is nothing that can be done until they do. I want you to watch the kids, if something does happen, than you can act."

"So we're babysitting." Hiei had remained silent for most of the conversation, but now he had to say something, this did not sit well with him.

"Well, in a way, yes." Koenma answered while trying to avoid the death glare that Hiei was giving him.

"Alright then." Yusuke broke the silence while stretching his arms over his head. "What city are we going to, and how much is this bus ride going to cost me?"

"Oh, you can't take the bus." Koenma was bent under his desk apparently looking for something.

"Why not?" There was a long pause.

"Because you're going to America." He popped back up with five plane tickets.

"What!" the whole room exploded, yet again, but before they could act any further, they were hustled out the door, with Koenma complaining about being busy with paperwork. As the six of them stood outside Koenma's office, there was awkward silence.

"America," Kurama breathed as he took a ticket from Yusuke. "Well, I'd have to say this is going to be interesting."

"That's putting it lightly" Hiei said, but no one except Kurama heard him.

"Wait a minute, America." You could almost hear the **_click_** as Yusuke's brain put two and two together. "We don't know any English!"

"Oh I'm sure Koenma has a way around that." Kurama offered.

"Aren't those Americans supposed to be really weird?" Kuwabara had finally gotten over his initial shock.

"Well," Kurama thought for a moment. "I've heard that they're a lot more…"

"Undignified," Hiei put in.

"I was going to say a lot looser," the fox corrected, as he raised an eyebrow at the little fire demon.

"I don't care what you say; this is going to be fun!" Botan always could find the bright side of everything. After a long pause, three boys all moaned in unison.

"How an I going to explain this to my parents!"

5


	2. Chapter 2

Just thought you'd want to know that I don't own YYH.

Ch.2

3:00am was a ghastly hour to be awake, but since the plane left at 4:00 am, that's when they had to get to the airport.

"How long is this…f-flight going to be?" Yusuke asked while trying to stifle a yawn.

"At least fifteen hours," Kurama answered, he was staring out the window with his head leaning against the glass, wishing the plane would start. Accost from him was Hiei, who seemed to be the only other person awake, and next to Kurama was Kuwabara. On the other side of Kuwabara was Botan, and that girl was cheery no matter what the time. The carrot top was already snoring, fast asleep in his seat. Next to Hiei, Yusuke yawned again.

**_Stupid humans_**, the fire demon thought.

Finally, as Kurama wished, the plane started down the run way.

**_I wonder how long were going to be in America?_**

Kurama was still staring out the window, watching the ground pass beneath them. He was keeping to his own thoughts, too tired to strike up a conversation. Besides it's not like anyone else knew the answers to his questions.

_**America should be a fun place. At least we got that language problem sorted out. I have to say that incantation Koenma put on us was pretty ingenious. I can understand English perfectly now. **_

And without realizing it, Kurama drifted off with his head leaning against the window.

"Aaaaaaaaaaaaghhhhhhhhhh!" A girl screamed as she wrestled with her locker, she was losing. After finally getting everything stuffed into the locker, and quickly kicking the door shut, she managed to escape.

"That was lame," another girl said.

"I never said I was graceful…or organized," the first girl answered.

Meanwhile, at the airport.

"Aaaah, that was a long plane ride," Yusuke said while trying to stretch out his tight muscles.

"Well the airports don't look any different than back home," Kuwabara said, not particularly to anyone.

"Are you still asleep, because you're babbling nonsense," Hiei growled. The long plane ride had made him very irritable and he, contrary to his usually actions, was trying his best not to make a commotion.

"Come on, stop arguing, I want to see the city!" Kurama yelled over his shoulder as he walked away "I've always wanted to go to America," he added under his breath.

"So where do we go?" Yusuke asked Kurama as soon as they got out side and were standing in the bright sunlight.

"Well," Kurama took a piece of paper out of his pocket. "Koenma told us to meet him at this hotel," he looked around "Which should be this way." It was about a half hour walk to the hotel but it took them a good two hours to get there. Everything was so different. The first thing that drew Yusuke's attention was the arcade. He couldn't get over how different the English games were. It took Kurama, Kuwabara, and Botan to drag him out of there, only to realize that Hiei was gone. The little fire demon was peering into the window of a martial arts school. It took them ten minutes to convince Hiei to leave, sense no one the courage to try and drag him away, but once they did he walked away mumbling that it wasn't that good of a place anyway. Everyone's attention got distracted at one point or another. Even Kurama was drawn into a computer store, and then later a book store, even though everyone was amazed at the English translation Mangas. All in all, they were lucky to make it to the Hotel at all. When they finally did make it there Koenma was not so patiently waiting for them.

"So you finally decided to show up," Koenma responded as they all sat down.

"Yah, yah, shut it Jr." Yusuke retorted, as usual he had no respect for authority.

"We got a little sidetracked," Kurama answered apologetically.

Koenma continued, ignoring Yusuke's comment.

"I'm sure you've all been wondering how you're going to be following these kids."

"Actually not re-" Kuwabara started, bet before he could finish Koenma went on.

"Of course you have. I figured it would be easier to watch them without your physical bodies." Everyone started talking at once, all trying to ask him questions as to how that would work. Everyone except Botan that is.

"Actually, that makes sense, no one can see us, but sir how can we protect them, if need be, without our bodies?" Koenma, however, had the solution to that.

"Yusuke, do you remember the incantation Genkai gave you to remove the Spirit Cuffs?"

"Um, yes, it was 'Abidas' right," Yusuke said wondering what this had to do with anything.

"That same incantation should put you back in your bodies," and that answered Yusuke's question. There was a long pause which Koenma decided meant everyone had the information they needed. "Time to get to work. Watch my magic snap," and before anyone could protest, snap. The group of five found themselves floating over a school, which they could only assume was the school where most of the students went.

"Whoa!" Kuwabara yelled as he did an awkward triple quark screw threw the air, he was the only one who had never been a ghost, and he was thrilled.

"Calm down Kuwabara, we're here to work," Kurama ordered as he pulled some paper out of his pocket. It was a list of the students and pictures of them.

"Let's just find the targets and get this started," Hiei said blankly, he was not very amused. To Kuwabara's amazement, they flew through the ceiling and a few classroom walls, only to find that the kids were outside. There were four girls sitting in a circle on the pavement. Next to them were a bunch of boys and another girl standing around talking.

"Why are they outside?" Yusuke asked.

"My guess is its recess," Kurama answered. "American middle schools are very different from Japanese middle schools. But never mind that, let's see." Kurama was talking more to himself now than anyone else. He was referring to the list to try and figure out who was who. "Ok, all four of the girls on the ground are targets. That one's Aryn" he pointed to a girl with dark tan skin and short, kinky, dark brown hair which currently had a red bandana tied around it. Her eyes were a soft green color, but the gaze that came from them was anything but soft. She was ready to take on the world and knock down anyone that got in her way. "She's Elizabeth," now he was pointing to the girl next to Aryn. Elizabeth had pale skin, not white, it was a little darker than that, but it was close. Her hair was brown with blond highlights, and very wavy, which fell just short of her shoulder blades. Along with it all she had light brown eyes, slightly tinted with amber. As soon as you looked in them you knew she had an attitude but a good heart under it all. "The girl next to her is Jamie." The first thing they noticed about Jamie was how pale she was, she was white. She had light hair on the verge between blond and brown, with a bit of a red tint that reached her shoulders and was almost as wavy as Elizabeth's. Her eyes were dark brown, almost black, nothing special, but they had a hidden look to them look to them, like there was more there then what you saw on the surface. "And the last girl is Yami." Now she was definitely gothic, dressed in all black. She was very tan, though not as much as Aryn and night black hair, with just a slight wave, that fell to her waist which she always had in a ponytail. Her eyes were just as black as her hair, and though it wasn't always obvious to others, there was pain behind her eyes. What her story was, they didn't know, but her past must have had its troubles.

"Yami must be the girl they placed over seas," Yusuke pointed out, seeing how she was obviously Korean. However Kurama continued to point out the students.

"The boys are a lot easier to spot. The one with blue hair is Travis, and Mike's the one with…liberty spikes and a studded leather jacket." Mike was an obvious punk, no question, even his hazel eyes screamed delinquent. Travis was a different story he was a little quieter, though still very friendly and energetic, but his misty grey eyes, half hidden by a mop of blue hair that rivaled Botan, were soft. Kurama stared down at the paper for a minute before continuing. "Oh wait there's one more, Jordan; she's sitting a little away from the others, right there," Kurama pointed to her. "Can't tell what she's doing." At that moment the four girls called her over to come join them, and she quickly joined in the conversation. Jordan was a small girl with mouse brown hair that fell just passed her shoulders and small brown eyes, although she always kept it in a high, neat ponytail. It quickly became apparent that her size deceived her; although she was small she had an attitude big enough for anyone. Although not much heart, at least none that she was showing.

"Wait, I thought there were eleven people, that's only," Yusuke had to take a second to count on his fingers "seven people."

"The other four go to the same dojo (martial arts school) as Jamie," Kurama explained. "Like Koenma said, they are all connected some how."

"This is going to be a boring day," Hiei cut in.

"Why?" Kuwabara couldn't help but ask.

"All were going to be doing is watching these ningen…**_live_**!" Hiei shot back at him.

"Hey this is the easiest job we've had for a while, so stop complaining," Yusuke shouted, ending the rising argument.

9


	3. Chapter 3

If I could buy Yu Yu Hakusho I would, but I can't so I don't own it

Ch.3

"So how was the concert this weekend, I wish I could have gone." Jamie was pissed that she had, once again, missed the fun.

"It was great! There was this one guy there that …Elisabeth, what are you doing." Aryn had just noticed that the other girl was staring up at the sky with narrowed eyes.

"It feels like someone's watching us," she answered, not taking her eyes away.

**_Oh crap, do you think she spotted us._**

**_Don't be stupid, they can probably sense us but there's no way they can actually see us._**

"You always think someone is watching us, now stop worrying and get over here," Aryn yelled. The bell rang signaling that recess was over and lunch was beginning. They all entered the lunch room and, after the people who didn't bring lunches fought over the spare food, which took most of the period, everyone settled in. ****

"So how was your weekend?" Dani asked Yami. Dani was not one of the experiments, but she was there friend anyway. She had light skin and amber eyes. Her hair was very long and naturally crimped; it was dark blond but she had it dyed a purplish-black color and tied in two knots on top of her head.

"Actually, it was great," Yami answered. "I got to spend Saturday with Seth." Seth was Yami's boyfriend, but her parents didn't like him so she barely got to spend any time with him.

"So what happened," Dani pressed.

"Oh, the usual" Yami answered with out really looking at her.

"You're being vague enough to make me wonder if something happened," Aryn stated.

"Maybe it did," she smiled but wouldn't say anything more. The bell rang at that moment announcing that classes were starting up again and everyone scrambled out of the lunchroom.

"This is boring, we're just watching these kids go through classes. I hardly go to my own, I don't want to sit through other people's," Kuwabara wined. It was five periods latter and the kids were on the last period of the day.

Don't complain, it's not often we get a mission where we get to do nothing." Kurama was floating on his back playing with an ivy vine, making it grow in intricate designs through the air.

"Wait, what are they doing now, there getting out some brown gloppy stuff?" Yusuke pondered out loud.

"With you being a detective," Hiei said "I would think you would be able to put two and two together. This is an arts school, and they are in a visual art class.

"So do you feel as dumb as you look," which earned Kuwabara a mouthful of fist. After spluttering around for a minute he look down at the kids and shouted "Hey wait there's two missing!"

"Relax," Kurama interjected before Kuwabara had a conniption. "The other two are in a classroom two doors down from here in the drama department." And Yusuke couldn't stop laughing.

"Now who's dumb?" Meanwhile Hiei was trying to ignore the whole lot of them.

"Bakas."

Forty-five minuets later class ended and school was over. But as everyone left to go home a problem was realized.

"Oh crap, there all going in different directions. How are we going to watch all of them?" Yusuke shouted, about knocking the other four out of the air.

"Not a problem, this is easily solvable," Kurama answered.

"What do you mean?" Botan asked.

"Follow me and I'll show you," Kurama answered and smiled as he started off to the nearest targets house.

"He's being vague again," Yusuke pointed out.

"Hiei, what did he mean by that?" Botan asked the fire demon, a little too enthusiastically.

"Hn, it seems the fox has a new trick to show us." Once they got to the house, Mikes, everyone stared at Kurama waiting for an answer.

"Okay, Kurama, spill it. What are we going to do?" Yusuke did not like being confused.

"Give me a minuet," Kurama said as he pulled a seed out of his hair that instantly grew into a single leaf as big as a soccer ball. "First off, everyone has to grab a hold of this." He held up the leaf.

"Then what?" Botan asked, curious.

"You'll see." So everyone grabbed on. Kurama poured his power into it and great creeping vines manifested. They were about as thick as a baseball bat, but there seemed to be no end to how long they could be for they just kept growing. The vines crept their way towards the house and began to wrap themselves completely around it, both inside and out. Once the vines successfully completed this task they stopped growing and, instead, starting sprouting hundreds of the soccer ball sized leafs. The leafs plastered themselves to every flat surface they could find, eventually there wasn't a square inch that wasn't covered by leaves.

"Ok fox, what did you do?" Yusuke said, rounding on Kurama.

"There called Guardian Spies," the fox explained. "It was originally used to guard portals, gates or any other kind of entrance." A flower grew in Kurama's hand. It was bright blue with red edges on the petals. In the center was some kind of smooth, flat mirror.

"So, what does it do?" Kuwabara asked.

"All of the leaves on the house," Kurama explained, "act like security cameras. With this flower I can see through any leaf of the plant." He touched the flat part of the flower, and his finger acted almost as a computer mouse, allowing him to scroll through the images of the house. They were able to see into every corner of every room of the house along with every possible angle from the outside.

"Clever!" Yusuke exclaimed his worries from earlier completely gone.

"With this we can watch all of them at once. If they leave we can watch them personally, but they can't all be out of there houses and in different places at once." Botan pointed out.

"Wait a minuet." Kuwabara said, turning to Kurama. "You want to explain to me how no one is going to notice this." He pointed to the house.

"Only the people involved in placing the plant can see it. To every one else it is virtually unnoticeable. Others can't even feel it." Kurama explained to him with a text book definition.

"Soooo, our problems are solved?" Yusuke asked.

"Yes."

"Why are we waiting around here then?" Kuwabara asked. "Let's get to work and put up these plant thingies at all the other houses." He shot his fist in the air as he flew off with the rest of the group to go put up the plants.

"I'm home!" Jamie shouted as she came through the door.

"Hi honey, oh your Monday night Karate class has been moved to Tuesday," her mom called back. **_Oh yeah,_** she thought, **_Sensei and Shihan went away, I'd forgotten._**

"Ok," she said as she stepped into the kitchen so that her mom knew she'd heard her. "I'm going up stairs to do my homework, call me when dinner is ready." Then just as she said, she went up stairs.

The next day of school was the same as the first. Classes, lunch, more classes, and last but not least, art. The Reiki Tantei were bored out of their minds, but far be it from them to actually complain about it. It wasn't often that they got time off. After school they would finally get to see the rest of the targets because Jamie had Karate.

"Hurry up, are you ready yet. Jamie's mom yelled as she ran around the house looking remarkably like a chicken with its head cut off. Jamie chuckled to herself at this thought. She was sitting by the door, ready to go, dressed in her training uniform, as she had been for the last ten minutes. Her uniform was a white gi and tied around her waist was one of her most prized possessions, her black belt. It was made of course silk and had her name sewn into it, in Japanese, in gold thread.

"Yes I'm ready, now would you come on I'm going to be late."

"Well if you don't want to be late, you should be more organized and get ready sooner," her mom said in a matter-of-fact tone, and then headed for the door. Jamie had been expecting this comment and knew it was better not to argue the point.

"Shame, shame, shame Jamie, you're late!" Jessica yelled as she frolicked towards the girl. (Yes, frolicked.)

"Hi Jessica," Jamie managed to say before the girl jumped on her.

"She's not really late, class is starting late, so she's fine," Erika pointed out.

"Jessica, get off Jamie. I don't think she likes you hanging on her like that," Erika's sister Stephanie scolded, but she wasn't really mad, it was just their way of teasing.

"Oh, she's just being a difficult lesbian today." Jessica said in a disturbing voice that made you fear for your virtue.

"I'm not…whatever." Jamie had long sense given up trying to argue with Jessica that she was not her lesbian partner. Besides, she did it to everyone, and Jessica was only playing around. She hoped.

"Guess who's here," Erika said in a quick change of topic. "Sam!"

"Sam!" Jamie yelled as she ran over and glomped the girl, just noticing her for the first time. "What are you doing back from college already?"

"Yeah," Sam explained. "I switched over to a local school, so I don't start for a few more weeks."

"Why did you switch," Jamie asked, finally letting the girl go. "You were going to one of the best schools in the state."

"I don't know…I just wanted to." Sam was at a complete loss of words to explain.

"Line up!" Sensei called at that moment for the start of class, and the conversation was immediately dropped.

The Reiki Tantei had split up and now Kurama and Yusuke were hovering over the class watching the girls socialize. "Are these the other people we have to watch?" The answer was obvious but Yusuke couldn't help but ask.

"Yes." Once again Kurama had his trusty list out. "There are the two boys at the school, but all the rest are girls. The oldest looking one with dark brown hair, red highlights and red bangs is Sam." The girl had a very quiet demeanor but once you got to know her she was really quite pleasant. Being around her you felt energized yet relaxed at the same time. "There are the two sisters, see the girls with shoulder length cornflower blond hair and blue eyes. The taller one is Stephanie but she is actually the younger one, and the other sister is named Erika." These girls usually got mistaken for twins, even though one was a year older then the other, but in all reality they basically were. They were very close and very intone to each other. "And last but not least there is Jessica. She's the girl with the waist length hair that's poker strait and dirty blond." Jessica was thin and basically figureless. One of the group's biggest jokes was not being able to tell her gender. Yusuke, who had stared blankly at Kurama through his entire explanation, was silent for a few moments before speaking again.

"Why are there only two boys?" He didn't expect Kurama to actually know the answer and was a little shocked when the fox didn't even hesitate with an explanation.

"For some reason girls seem to have wave lengths that are more in tune to each other, and connect better than guy's do." A very long and uncomfortable silence followed this.

"Kurama, why…why do you know so much about these experiments? Or do I really want to know?"

"Oh…experience. This isn't the first time I've been involved with this kind of thing."

"Involved how?"

"When I was Youko Kurama I had dealings with labs that did experiments like this so it was hard not to learn about them. I actually had a lot of offers to help with the tests themselves."

"Did you ever take any of the offers?" Yusuke was really regretting this answer.

"No, doing these kinds of things to humans never appealed to me but….I did take one job. It wasn't really my fault, I didn't know. Well I knew about the experiments but I didn't know exactly what they were doing, and the offer was way too good to refuse." Kurama turned to look at Yusuke who was just staring at him, looking very lost.

"I think you lost me," Yusuke replied.

"Maybe I should start from the beginning."

15


	4. Chapter 4

I feel like a parrot. squawk don't own Yu Yu Hakusho. How many times do I have to repeat it?

Ch.4

I was approached by a man named Karron. He was doing some experiments in the Makai world, and he wanted my help. All I had to do was steal supplies and machines that he needed. It was a lot of money for such easy work so there was no way I could refuse. Besides, the things that I was stealing seemed harmless enough, like software and such. Don't get me wrong, doing these kinds of things to humans never appealed to me, but I didn't know what the tests were, and I never intended to find out. Unfortunately I did.

_**Yusuke could tell that the memories were stirring something up inside his friend. Kurama was no longer lounging in the air, but sitting with his arms around his knees and he would not look at him , but Yusuke was not about to stop the story. Besides, Kurama had better control over himself than anyone else he knew. **_

Karron had called me back to the facility, saying that he had another job for me. It was a huge building with many rooms and a lot of workers. Obviously it was a big project. Well when I met him the first thing he asked me about was my fighting ability. He said he had heard about how powerful the thief Youko Kurama was, but he wanted to be sure. Well I assured him that the stories did not lie about my strength and if he really thought that I could have done half of those things if they did. He laughed at this and said no he didn't think I could have before he started explaining about the job he wanted me to do.

"I want you to transport one of our experiments; it's our best creation so you'll have to be very careful. I don't want it getting damaged." I had to ask him why he wanted me to do it, for it sounded like something he could easily do himself. "Yes well, we are moving part of our experiments to another facility, and we want this one to be moved a little more discreetly. It's the one thing we can not afford to lose. Everything else can be replaced easily enough, if need be, and we figured a single party would not draw so much attention. We have a lot of enemies you know." I decided to take the job. It was fairly easy and the pay was more than adequate. He was very happy that I accepted. "I'm assuming you would like to see what you will be transporting, just follow me. It's being worked on right now but I don't think that will be a problem." With that he got up and walked out of the room.

I followed him for a good five minutes until we reached an observation deck. One whole wall of the room was glass looking down into what looked like an operating room. He walked over to the glass wall and indicated to something in the room. I stayed behind so that I couldn't see the room below, and I had a feeling I didn't want to see. "There she is," he said as he beckoned me over. I came over and looked down; I'll never forget what I saw. There was a girl on a table and she was being operated on. Even from that distance I could see how much blood there was. In all essence…it was torture. Then he asked me if I wanted a closer look, and I was not in a position to say no. He took my silence as a yes and opened a door at the side of the room we were in. As soon as he opened it a loud, piercing sound hit me like a blow to the head. It took me a few seconds to realize that the noise was someone screaming, and as I walked down the steps I saw who it was. It was the girl. We were about two feet away from the table, the operators had stopped there work, and all I could do was stare at her. She was just a teenage girl, a human teenage girl. Her screaming had stopped when the doctors had stopped, but there was even more blood that I originally thought. There was very little of her not covered in blood, and the people had started to clean her up.

Once she was clean he ordered them to stand her up, but she couldn't even support her own weight, and collapsed as soon as they let her go. "Pitiful," he said as he pulled her back up with one arm. That was all I could take. I walked out of that room and back to the room I had met him in. I was planning to leave but Karron had followed me back and was thinking otherwise. "Don't tell me you're actually feeling sorry for it." That man was actually laughing, but at the time I didn't have much respect for humans either, like most demons, so I was actually considering staying. "It's only a human," he continued, but he corrected himself. "No, not even human. She was artificially created so technically she isn't even a person, just a machine." I was starting to feel a little better about it, seeing as how she wasn't a real human, it didn't seem so repulsive. Besides it was just a human, and they don't matter.

"Fine," I said "I'll do the job, when is it."

"In two days time and you're welcome to stay here until then."

**_"Kurama, you actually took the job!" Yusuke interrupted. He felt sorry for his friend, Kurama was getting pretty depressed at this memory and Yusuke had never seen Kurama depressed, but he was even more disgusted by the idea that his friend had actually gotten involved. Kurama turned to him and Yusuke was shocked to see his friends eyes misted over with unshed tears. "I didn't know the whole story, besides I hadn't lived in the human world yet and still thought of them as inferior. Kurama then turned back to staring at his knees and continued his story._**

****I never actually got to do the job; there was a disturbance before it that made me see things in a new light. A day after the job was assigned I was in the room that had been lent to me, trying to plan out the safest path to take. However, my task was interrupted when an alarm went off. It was a piercing noise that definitely could not be ignored. I didn't know why the alarm was going off, until someone burst through my door. It was the test subject I was going to transport. Then it was obvious that she was the cause for the alarm. She had escaped. I rushed over to the door closed it and locked it so she couldn't get out, making sure to stand between her and the only exit. If I had never talked to her I never would have known the truth, but while waiting for the guards to get here we had plenty of time to talk. The first thing I noticed was that she was covered in blood, like when I first saw her. There wasn't as much as the first time, but it was still there.

"So you're trying to escape I see, well it ends here." I hadn't actually expected her to respond, but she did.

"I take it you're the one they hired to transport me."

"The thing can talk I see." I was so rude to her, but she seemed used to it for she knew exactly how to respond.

"Thing? I have a name you know."

"Well then what is it?" There was a long silence before she answered me, and I still regret asking her.

"I…don't remember. They've always called me WM7, but I had a name at one point." I thought she was an artificial life form so her comment made no sense.

"Why would they give you a name if they were just going to take it away?" She was just staring at me without any emotion at all.

"These people didn't name me, my parents did."

"You must be confused, you were artificially made, and you never had any parents." At this she actually started laughing.

"Is that what they've been telling you? Well that's wrong, let me correct it. I was a normal human, but I was ripped away from my parents when I was two years old. It's true that most of my body now has been 'created' but I still consider myself human. Not that a person like you would care though." My head was spinning. She was a normal girl. I may not have had much respect for them, but I still did not approve of human torture. There was nothing I could say that would make up for what I had helped to do.

"I-I'm sorry. I didn't know." She just stared at me with that emotionless gaze, but slowly something began to show.

"You are actually sorry about this, aren't you? Why? I thought demons didn't care what happened to humans." I was praying that I could make her understand so I tried my best to explain.

"It's not that we care, it's just that some of us don't approve of things like this. If I had known what this place was I never would have accepted the job." I would have said more but at that moment Karron entered the room followed by a few guards. He walked right over to her and hit her upside the head, knocking her to the ground. Before she could push herself up he pulled her up by her hair until she was eye level with him.

"HOW DARE YOU! Haven't I made it clear yet that resistance is useless." He was still holding on to her when he turned to me. "Thank you for catching her. She can be a real problem when she gets lose." A dagger slid down from inside his sleeve and he slashed her across the chest with it, and when she was lying on the ground again he stomped his foot down on her back, stopping her from rising. I couldn't watch this anymore.

"Karron stop! Do you really need to hurt her like that?" He kept his foot on her, but turned to look at me.

"You aren't seriously feeling sorry for this thing." He picked her up by the collar and held her out to me. "Look at it, it's pathetic." I turned my head away from her.

"You lied to me. You said that she had been artificially created, but she told me otherwise. She had a family and you tore her away from that, and I don't like torturing humans." He dropped her to the ground and kicked her in the head. Her new injuries were adding more red to the mass of blood already covering her and it was dripping to the ground. "I'm sorry Karron but I can not follow through with this assignment." He just glared at me. If looks could kill I'd be dead.

"Fine!" he pointed towards the door "Get out!" I was more than happy to leave, but I barely got one step towards the door when something grabbed me. I looked down to see the girl clinging to my leg.

"Please, help me," she whispered. I looked to see where Karron was but luckily he was on the other side of the room with his back turned to us talking to some of the guards about adding more security. Looking into her eyes, I saw that she was crying, her tears mixing with her blood. She was begging me for help, for savior. I was her last lifeline but I turned away from her. I'd had enough of it and just wanted to get out of there, I should have taken her with me right there.

"I'm sorry, I-I can't." It was the last thing I said to her before I walked away from her, and just kept walking. A few days latter I heard that she had died and the experiment had been discontinued. I'll never forgive myself for leaving her like that.

****

19


	5. Chapter 5

Do I really have to say it again; I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho

Ch.5

"Geese Kurama, sorry I brought it up."

"No, it's not you're fault, besides I've been thinking about this for awhile now." Kurama said; now back to his normal self. "It's this mission."

"What do you mean," Yusuke asked his friend.

"That girl, Jamie," he pointed to her. "She…She looks exactly like the girl I just told you about. I have to wonder if they're related in some way." Yusuke didn't really know how to respond to this, gut he had to try none the less.

"Maybe Koenma knows something about it. I mean he does handle the dead. I'll ask him next time I see him." There was an uncomfortable silence in which Kurama continued to watch the girls below them practicing basic blocks.

"So, do you think it was safe to leave Hiei and Kuwabara alone together?" Yusuke asked, desperately looking for something to lighten the mood.

"I'm sure they'll be fine." Kurama answered him. "Botan is with them and they're not stupid enough to do anything that would jeopardize the mission. Besides, in these spirit forms they can't really hurt each other, and we needed someone to watch over the others." By this time class was almost over and it wasn't until everyone had finished cleaning the mats (Sensei had to stand by the door so that no boys would try to sneak out and leave the girls with all the work, again) and they were getting ready to leave that either of them spoke again. Just as the girls were heading out the door, Kurama turned to Yusuke.

"Come on. We still need to put Guardian Spies on the remaining girl's houses."

"Ok, I'll contact the others and tell them to meet us at…the sister's house is closest, right?" Yusuke was glad that the atmosphere was starting to ease up between them.

"Erika and Stephanie, yes" Kurama answered him before they went off to meet the others. It was about midnight when the gang was floating above the city. The last of the Guardian Spies had been put up and now there was nothing to do. That is until Hiei brought up a disturbing fact.

"Kurama, did you feel that?" Kurama simply nodded.

"What does he mean?" Yusuke hated it when people were vague.

"A large amount of demonic power just entered the city," Kurama clarified. He took out the blue and red flower that acted like a screen for the Guardian Spies and saw how close the demons were. "But they only seem to be targeting a few of the houses. Yami's, Jamie's, Travis's, Jessica's, and Sam's, to be precise."

"Well what are we waiting for?" Kuwabara asked he was getting inpatient. Botan, you stay here, we'll take care of this."

"No," Hiei corrected him. "These demons are the lowest of the low; even she should be able to handle them. This makes one house for each of us."

"Ok," Yusuke said, taking charge. "I'll go to Travis's, Hiei go to Yami's, Kuwabara to Jessica's, Kurama to Sam's, and Botan to Jamie's." That was all it took for everyone to go get to work and go to their assigned places. When Kurama got to Sam's house he immediately saw about six or seven demons approaching the house.

"Abidas!" he yelled to return to his physical form and dropped to the ground, right in-between the approaching demons and the house. "You really think you're going to get in there," he warned as he flicked a rose out of his hair. "Rosewhip!" A long green vine appeared, covered in diamond hard thorns and a handle at one end. It was aimed right at the opposing demons. "Just try it," was his last warning. But instead of attacking, the demon, who seemed to be in charge of the group, held up an electronic devise. It pushed a button on the top and it started blinking, then they disappeared. Kurama took out his communication mirror and called Yusuke. "Yusuke we have a problem," he said once the boy appeared on the screen.

"I'll say we do, those damn demons just up and disappeared as soon as they saw me. The same thing happened to Hiei, Kuwabara, and Botan."

"Hey, is someone talking about me," Kuwabara's voice broke through. Kurama watched as the screen divided it's self into four separate images showing all the other members of the group.

"Kurama, you do realize what just happened?" Hiei asked.

"Yes" Kurama replied. "This will make things much more difficult."

"Will somebody explain to me what the hell's going on?" Yusuke exclaimed. Once again he was left out of the loop.

"We will. But let's meet up first." And at that Kurama clicked off his communication mirror.

An hour latter they were all sitting in a hotel room. The same room they had met Koenma in earlier to be exact. They were seated around a table, with Yusuke sitting at the head, and surprisingly no one was saying anything. That is until Yusuke spoke up.

"Ok, that's all the quiet staring I can take. Does anyone want to explain what's going on?" He looked from Hiei to Kurama, sense they were the only one's who seemed to know, but it was a moment before either of them answered.

"It simple," Hiei responded, "It was a test, and we just failed." The whole room shifted with uneasiness, they knew what had happened but were just too afraid to admit they'd messed up.

"The demons had no intention of taking the targets tonight. They simply showed up to see if anyone else would to protect them." Kurama didn't really need to explain but the talk helped fill the dead silence. However Botan was better at that and took over.

"I get it, now that they know we're here, they'll know how to plan an attack." She looked around the room, hopping for a response. When none came she was forced to ask the inevitable question. "But what in the world are we going to do now." Surprisingly it was Yusuke who answered her.

"That's easy," He said as he stood up. "We wait for whatever they're going to through at us and once there here we kick some ass!"

"Maybe we should talk to Koenma about getting back in those spirit forms," Kurama suggested, as everyone ignored Yusuke, as usual.

Three days latter it was Friday night. Jamie was hanging out with her karate friends, and suspiciously every other target was within three blocks from them. So, the team, who were back in their ghost forms, was all back together.

"Man this is boring!" Yusuke shouted for the hundredth time.

Indeed it was a slow night. There wasn't a cloud in the sky but the air was thick and heavy. It was night out, but the full moon mixed with all the stars, made it very easy to see. The group was lazing about waiting for something to happen. Kurama was playing with his vines, Hiei was occupying himself by caring for his sword, and Kuwabara was asleep. Although he looked quite peculiar sense he was upside-down with his feet pointing towards the sky. Botan was looking through the windows in the house until something caught her eye, and everyone rushed to her when she called to them.

"You guys might want to see this!" Kurama was the first to reach her but only a moment latter everyone else was crowding around the window, trying to see.

"What…what are they watching? Is that me!" Yusuke spoke first.

"I've heard about this, but I didn't think it was true," Kurama explained to no one in particular. "In America there's an Anime called Yu Yu Hakusho. It's about the adventures of the Reiki Tantei, starting with Yusuke dying and, so far, going up to us meeting the three demon gods." At this everyone started talking at once, up to the point where it was almost impossible to tell one statement from the other.

"Why was I not informed of this…"

"…Damn I look good on T.V…"

"If the wrong demons got their hands on this it could really put my mother in danger…" and so on.

A few hours latter, the girls got bored with watching Anime. (If that's possible) They all sat in the living room debating what to do next.

"We could just go to sleep."

"But I'm not tired at all."

"Neither am I." There was a long pause.

"We could walk to the park." Erika suggested.

"In the dark?" Sam asked.

"Why not in the dark?" Jamie defended.

"Fine let's just go." Stephanie decided.

"Can I go barefoot?" a voice called from another room. Everyone looked at each other.

"Yes Jessica, you can go barefoot!" They all answered.

24


	6. Chapter 6

Do I really have to spell it out? I-D-O-N-T-O-W-N-Y-U-Y-U-H-A-K-U-S-H-O

Ch.6

By the time they got to the park it was very late. It was still very humid even though the sky was so clear. It almost felt like you were swimming rather than walking. It only took a minuet for the group to figure out that they weren't alone.

"Yami," Jamie yelled as she ran over to the other girl and hugged her. "What are you doing here?"

After being released, and regaining the ability to breath, Yami answered. "We're all here," and so they were. Behind her stood Elizabeth, Aryn, Travis, Jordan, and Mike, along with Yami's boyfriend Seth and a girl named Cristian. Seth was a rather tall, lanky boy with a mop of brown hair and bright, kind grey eyes. Cristian on the other hand had midnight dark skin and matching dark eyes and hair, which currently hung in a bunch of braids down her back. Despite looks she was a friendly girl, a bit crazy at times, with a spiritual look at life.

"Everyone except Jordan was handing out at Mike's house and we decided to go for a walk, obviously we met Jordan on the way here," Yami put in before Jamie had a chance to ask. "Who are those other people with you?"

Jamie looked back at the group she had come with for a minuet before realizing the problem. "Oh, right you've never met them. I've told you about my friends from Karate, right? Well this is Erika, Stephanie, Jessica, and Sam," she explained as she pointed to each one individually.

"Great! The more the merrier!" Mike shouted not startling anyone because they all expected it. All except the Karate group that is.

"After awhile of get-to-know-each-other conversation, the group decided to just walk around the field. They walked until they hit the baseball field, then Sam just suddenly stopped.

"Sam what's a matter?" Stephanie asked worriedly. The whole group stopped to look at the girl.

"Maybe we should just go around." Sam suggested. "This place doesn't feel right. At that point Jessica bounded over to help out.

"There's nothing wrong it's just a field, come on." At that she grabbed the other girls arm and pulled her towards the rest of the group.

"So, how much you wanna bet they pull something tonight." Yusuke whispered even though it was pointless sense the humans couldn't here any of them in their ghost forms.

"There is a strong energy hanging about this field, they are planning to attack. I suggest that we return to our physical forms," Kurama suggested. There was a group 'abides' and they all landed safely behind a bush about a hundred feet away from their targets.

"Is this field muddy or is it just me?" Mike yelled as they walked across the field. For some reason every time he put his foot down, it stuck, making him have to forcefully pull it up. This of course made him look very peculiar.

"It's hot as hell out here, it can't be muddy. But I'm having trouble walking too." Travis called back. Actually the entire group was having the same problem. Suddenly the entire field started to glow with an eerie purple light, so bright that everyone had to shut their eyes. Once the glowing stopped, and everyone could see, no one was able to move their legs at all. Before anyone had time to react to this, a group of about twenty demons or so appeared in front of the kids.

"Shot Gun!" someone called. There was another blinding flash of light but when this one subsided all that was left of the demons was a smoldering pile of ash.

"What the hell!" Travis shouted.

"Oh my god," Stephanie yelled as she pointed accost the field. Everyone looked to see the Reiki Tantei running towards them. When they got there Kurama was the first to speak.

"Are you all ok?"

"Oh, yeah, there's just that tinny problem **that I can't move my legs!" **Arynretorted her voice came out a little harsher than she meant, but everyone knew she meant well.

"Oh, yes that might be a problem," the fox responded calmly. He looked at the small fire demon standing next to him. "Hiei?"

"My Jagan was meant to make curses, not break them." He replied curtly. However he untied his headband and, opening his Jagan eye, started working on breaking the curse that held them.

"So, you're probably all wondering what the hell is going on. Right?" Yusuke addressed the group.

"Of course we are. You're the Spirit Detective…people, but why are you here?" Mike, who was the closet one to the newcomers, asked.

"They're called the Reiki Tantei, Mike," Jamie responded. She was standing next to Mike.

"Of course you would know," he shot at her, although the remark was friendly. "You're like completely obsessed with the show." Then to Jamie's horror he continued. "Hey Kurama, you and Jamie here should hook up some time, 'cause she…aaaagh!" At that point Jamie had slapped her hands over his mouth and successfully managed to slam his head into the ground, even with her legs stuck as they were.

Before anyone could say anything else, the ground started to shake. Several large cracks appeared in the ground and wave after wave of minor demons stampeded out of them, completely flooding the field. They were gnarled little creatures, looking similar to the Fugaki, but the worst was the smell. They smelled like rotting flesh and blood. Like the fleeting sense of a nightmare right before you wake up.

"Hiei, are those kids free yet," Kurama called. Hiei's response was barely audible above the noise.

"No, somehow this barrier seems to be resisting my eye. I can't get through it." However this soon became the least of their problems as several large beams of light shot down from the sky.

Appearing out of the light came several enormous demons. They weren't very powerful but they were big. As tall as trees and limbs as round as tree trunks, they could easily hold a couple of humans in each hand. And it looked like that just might be their very purpose.

"The army of demons was completely surrounding both the humans and the Reiki Tantei, and was quickly moving to try and separate the two groups. The demons themselves were not hard to kill, even Botan could smack them around with her oar, but with so many it would take a long time to cut through them all. And time was not something they had a lot of. The demons were successfully cutting the Reiki Tantei off from the humans and, with the vast numbers, there was not a thing they could do about it. They tried there best to get back to the kids but they couldn't turn their backs to the larger demons that were waiting to strike.

Kuwabara swung his sword through a line of demons that were trying to cut him off from the others. "This is just like the veggie heads at maze castle!"

"And the Fugaki," Yusuke called back to him. "No matter how many you cut down they just keep coming!"

The large demons walked around the edge of the mayhem to where the humans were trapped. Two of them picked up a couple of children in each hand and started to head back to the beams of light.

Kurama, who had just managed to cut a small pass through the army of invading demons, rushed to try and stop them. He sent a spurt of energy through the ground, missing the first one but impaling the second with dozens of razor sharp bamboo shoots. However the demon he missed managed to get to a nearby beam and instantly disappeared, taking the humans with him. But Kurama didn't have time t worry about this. The remaining demons scurried to pick up the humans that their fallen comrade had dropped. Kurama was determined to save the remaining humans, but unfortunately the horde of demons by now had realized that he had escaped their clutches and quickly moved to correct the problem by putting themselves between him and the humans. As Kurama fought his way through them he watched as one by one the humans were dragged into the light and disappeared.

By the time he managed to get through the annoying demons there was only one girl left. She was just a foot away from the beam, so close to disappearing. He managed to reach her and grabbed onto her hand. She looked up at him and when he met her eyes he froze.

**_What's wrong with me_**, he thought, **_I'm in the middle of an all out war and I'm just standing here like as idiot starring at her._** He was transfixed. So much so that he didn't notice the minor demon sneaking up behind her until it was too late. The demon pounced and Kurama knew that he couldn't react in time to stop it. To his utter shock, the girl swung around and kicked it in the head, decapitating it, and killing it instantly.

"Wow," was all he could manage to say before he brought his whip down on more attacking demons. She was clinging onto his hand for dear life but, while his attention was drawn away to the attackers, a larger demon grabbed her and dragged her into the light. Kurama tried to hold onto her but she disappeared between his fingers.

As soon as all the humans were through, the demons fled back into the cracks in the ground, which instantly sealed back up, leaving no trace of the previous events. Even the bodies of the dead demons had disappeared. The group ran over to Kurama who was kneeling in front of where the light used to be.

"Kurama!" Yusuke called. "What happened?" There was a long silence as they waited for Kurama to respond.

"They're gone," he finally said. "They took all of them, I failed to stop them." No one needed to ask what he meant by that, but they also didn't know what to say. Hiei walked over to where the beam of light used to be and put his hand on the ground, Jagan wide open and glowing.

"Hiei?" Botan asked curious.

"There are still remnants of a portal here," came his swift reply.

"Can you trace it?" they all asked hopefully. There was a long suspenseful silence as, Hiei concentrated, where everyone held their breath, and Kurama stood up, waiting for Hiei's answer.

"Yes," the whole group let out a breath, "And their in a nasty part of Demon World."

"Well then, let's go to demon world" Yusuke yelled, slightly more cheerful now. "All is not lost; we can still get them back."

"If they're still alive that is" Kuwabara put in. Everyone except the two demons stiffened in horror.

"Don't be stupid, they wouldn't kill them." Hiei corrected him, and everyone relaxed. "After going through so muck trouble to kidnap them do you really think they would just kill them? No, they wouldn't." There was another long silence as no one knew what to do next.

"I think we need to contact Koenma," Botan stated as she clicked open her communication mirror.

28


	7. Chapter 7

No Matter how much I wish I did, I'm sorry to say, I do not own Yu Yu Hakusho.

Ch.7

**_I'm floating, that's what it is; I'm floating in a sea of darkness._** **_Wow, that's really cliché._** Yami's head swam as she came back to consciousness. "Where are we?"

"We're in a wagon and that's all I know," Travis's voice answered her. And it was true. All the walls, the floor, the roof were all made of wood, and she could feel it rocking as it moved.

"Is there any way out?" she asked as she sat up. It was a stupid question but she had to ask.

"Oh yeah, we found one hours ago, but we figured it wouldn't be very sporting of us to run away," Mike answered sarcastically. He was sitting to the right of Travis, propped up against the wall.

"That's not funny," Yami shot back glaring at him; she was not in the mood.

"Mike just stared back at her. "Yeah, well neither is this." And at that he slammed his fist into the wall he was leaning on, but when he hit it that spot glowed gold for a minuet then faded back to wood. "It's magically reinforced, no way out.

"Ugh," came a voice, a few feet to Yami's right. Jamie was just waking up. She sat up, holding her head and looked around. Automatically realizing where they were she didn't bother asking. Instead she turned to the others. "Maybe we should wake up the others." She was right, they didn't know what was going to happen and it would be best to be ready. Jamie reached over to Jordan who was lying next to her and proceeded to try and wake up the girl. ""Jordan, Jordan wake up," she said gently shaking her.

"Mn, ten more minuets," came a grumbled reply. Jamie grabbed her shoulders and roughly shook her. "Jordan, wake up!" She woke up with a start.

"I'm up, I'm up!" She looked around "Where are we?"

"We'll explain once we get everyone up," Travis said as he started to shake Aryn. Fifteen minutes latter everyone was awake and Travis was explaining everything that he knew.

"How long are we going to be stuck here?" Stephanie asked the group.

"Until we reach wherever their taking us." Someone answered

"Fu," Erika called her nick name for her sister. "This wagon is giving me a headache." She was very sensitive to sound and movement and it was not the easiest ride.

"I know, but there's nothing I can do about it," Stephanie replied.

"Am I wrong or was that the Yu Yu Hakusho characters that tried to save us?" Sam asked.

"That was them," Yami answered her. Now that the initial shock had worn off she wasn't so irritable.

"It's not fair!" Jordan suddenly yelled, startled everyone turned to her.

"Why, what's not fair?" Elizabeth asked. Tears were streaming down the other girls face as she stuttered out an answer.

"I-It's not fair that Jamie gets Kurama, b-but I don't get Sano." It was a known fact that both Jordan and Jamie were obsessed with their own Anime character.

"I have Kurama?" Jamie blurted out. "I don't have him, I merely saw him." Figuring that this was not the time to bring up the fact that he had tried to save her personally, she continued. "Besides, you can't own someone so why are you getting so upset?"

"Why should you get your guy when I don't get anyone?" she shouted at Jamie, the tears now completely gone. "Why do you get the guy you want when I don't get anyone, what makes you so special!" Jamie closed her eyes and took a few breathes before answering.

"Once again, I can't 'get' him because you can't own someone. But to give you an answer I only saw him, I didn't even talk to him, I don't even know if he noticed me." However she did not mention that brief moment when their eyes had met, before she got pulled into the portal. This was not an argument that she wanted to be having. All she wanted to do was close her eyes and dream about that one happy moment, but her 'friend's' insistence was stopping her from doing so. "And what do you mean you don't have anyone, I 'm not even going to mention those three satellite guys you have."

"Yeah, but-" Jordan started, but Jamie cut her off.

"Jordan, this is a pointless argument. Why are you worrying about this now? You should be more concerned about weather we're going to **_live_** or not. This is obviously getting us nowhere so, I don't know about you, but I'm going to sleep." And with that she curled up under her jacket until she was nothing but a small black ball lying on the ground. This put an abrupt end on the argument, where then everyone else decided to follow Jamie's lead and get some rest. They didn't know what they were heading towards, but odds are it wasn't pleasant. If only they knew how right they were.

"So, what you're basically trying to tell me is that you failed," Koenma blandly stated. All five of the Reiki Tantei hung their heads, giving Koenma the answer.

"Yes sir," Botan answered. All of them were seated in the hotel. In ten minuets they managed to tell Koenma exactly what happened, but no matter how you worded it, they lost. And now they needed to fix it.

"Let me guess, you need me to get you to demon world."

"Yes sir, that's correct." This time it was Kurama who answered.

"Of all the things…this is not an easy task." Koenma sighed, shaking his head.

"We kinda expected that," Yusuke mumbled. There was a long silence.

"Well come with me," Koenma ordered as he stood.

"What?" The whole group looked at him.

"I said it was hard. I didn't say it was impossible," Koenma called over his shoulder as he walked out the door. There was a moment of silence as everyone looked at each other before scrambling after the retreating ruler.

Two hours latter, they were walking down a hall of the Spirit World palace. It was a long creepy hall, just like all the others, with numerous doors on each side leading to unimaginable rooms. After another couple minuets of walking, the group finally stopped at the end of the hallway in front of two huge, elegantly carved, double doors.

Yusuke whistled, "Whoa, you Spirit World guys sure go all out don't you."

"Wait till you see inside it," Kurama whispered a little louder than he meant. He instantly realized his mistake when Koenma whipped around to face him.

"When have you seen inside it," he stared intently at Kurama but all the damn fox did was stare back at him, for he figured that it would not be a good idea to tell Koenma that Youko had, indeed, been in this room the last time he broke in. Koenma turned back around to face the doors, deciding to shrug off Kurama's statement. He pulled an extravagant gold key out of his pocket and inserted it into the lock. Hearing the reassuring click, he pushed the doors open. The room inside was beyond words. So many colors and designs, the eye didn't know where to look first. Despite that, the most interesting thing was the design on the floor. It was a large pentagram with many unreadable symbols running along the edge and one larger symbol in the center.

"What is it?" Kuwabara gasped.

"This is how we make a **_safe_** portal to Demon World." Koenma answered him. "Unfortunately it will take a lot of energy and you will be drained once you cross over. I suggest you rest once you're across, and recover your energy before you go rushing into battle. Oh and this may cause you to feel a little pain." Of course that wasn't going to daunt any of them. "So Yusuke, Kuwabara, Hiei, Kurama, Botan. Each of you stands on a point." All of them did so with out complaining, even Hiei, and Koenma continued on to instructing them exactly how to position themselves for the ritual. "Now is everyone ready?" There was a group 'yes' and then all went silent.

Koenma walked to the center of the pentagram, placed a gold disk on the ground, and sprinkled it with some weird green powder. "Now I want all of you to concentrate on the disk and just sort of dump your energy into, ok?" Everyone nodded and Koenma retreated to a corner of the room. "Ok, go."

All five of them poured their energy into the disk and it began to glow. Above the disk a dark mass started to form. The only way to describe it was a dark mass, for it had no real form or color, and was getting bigger by the second. Of course none of the people standing on the symbol could notice this.

Koenma had said there would be some pain, but no real words could prepare them for what they felt. **_It's like my soul's being pulled from me and into a cheese grater,_** Yusuke thought. **_How much longer will this go on?_** He tried to pull his energy back but couldn't. He realized that he was no longer putting his power into it, but some force was pulling it out of him. **_Is this thing going to keep draining me until I'm drained and there's nothing left of me? If someone simply disappears do they die and go to Spirit World or do they just wander around, lost, forever. _**As scared as Yusuke should have felt right then, he didn't feel anything. It was like he was detached, like this wasn't really happening to him. **_I think Koenma lied to me, I'm going to die here_**, but even as he thought these words the pain began to subside. As soon as he felt the thing detach from him he crumpled to the ground. Looking around he noticed that everyone else had done the same, and Botan was just plain unconscious.

"Quickly, quickly, into the portal. It won't stay open for long," Koenma's voice broke through. Yusuke managed to pull himself to his feet, reached over and picked up the unconscious Botan and headed for the hovering darkness, that he could only assume was the portal. After looking back to make sure that the others were following him he stepped in.

It was like shooting through one of those tube slides at the park he used to play at as a kid. Only this one didn't seem to end and was a weird swirling mix of purple, red, and black. Yusuke was just getting used to the feeling, when he was spit out and found himself thrown face first into the ground, with Botan landing on top of him. He pushed the girl off and rolled over just in time to see the others land around him. Hiei and Kurama managed to land on all fours, but Kuwabara had his head stuck in the ground, like an ostrich, and couldn't seem to get out.

"The next time I see Koenma, remind me to teach him the meaning of a **_little_** pain," the fire demon muttered. Kurama chuckled and got up to help Kuwabara out.

34


	8. Chapter 8

I don't own Yu Yu Hakusho, nuf said.

Ch.8

The wagon came to an abrupt stop, jolting awake all of its prisoners. The doors were thrown open and hands with invisible faces grabbed the kids and threw them onto the ground. Before they managed to stand their hands were tied together with rope in front of them and they were blindfolded. Then they were made to stand and walk with only the pulling on the ropes around their wrists to guide them.

After what seemed like hours, but in reality were only about fifteen minuets, of blind stumbling they were, once again, thrown to the ground. However this time they were relieved of the ropes and blindfolds. Looking around they noticed that the room was all white, the walls, ceiling, floor, everything. There wasn't any furniture or anything so they just sat on the floor. The only thing in the room that wasn't white was a four by three window on the far right wall. In was black and they couldn't see anything through it. It was obviously a one-way window for observations.

"What's going on, where are we?" Elizabeth whimpered.

"What makes you think I'd know" Mike answered her.

"This place looks like a laboratory," Sam observed.

"So what, are we the lab rats," Aryn stated, half jokingly.

"In all essence, yes," Came a voice. The whole group looked around to see a man standing in the corner. He had waist length, strait black hair, and startling orange almost-brown eyes. To help out the whole laboratory idea, he was wearing a white lab coat with a black pants suit underneath.

"Who are you?" Jessica spoke up, sounding serious for once.

"Well," he thought about it for a moment. "I guess you could say I'm your master."

"Like hell, the only person I consider my master is me," Cristian spoke up for the first time sense they'd been kidnapped.

"What do you mean our master?" Seth asked on a more reasonable note.

"I'm the one who's in control of you." At their questioning looks he continued. "Let me explain. All of you are test subjects in our experiment. Well everyone except you two," he pointed to Cristian and Seth. "You two came along by accident, but I'm sure we can find something to do with you. But I'm getting off track." He stopped talking for reasons that the group couldn't seem to understand, but it did give them a good opportunity to ask questions.

"You said something about an experiment. What experiment is that?" Erika was the first to ask.

"Ah, yes, all of you, except the ones I pointed out earlier have wave lengths that run on seemingly identical frequencies. When you were born we made sure you were separate, even placing one of you over seas." He paused for a moment to allow this new factor to absorb into their minds then continued. "As you can see you have all been drawn back together. Now we want to see exactly why you're so connected and even see if we can't harness that connection." He was looking at them like he was a teacher telling them that they had all done well on their math tests.

Everyone in the group started arguing at the same time, apparently thinking that if they insulted him enough that he'd let them go. Everyone that is, except Jamie. She had been sitting there quietly ever sense she had laid eyes on him, just staring at him. Something about him made her uneasy. As he watched the others argue his eyes slipped over to her and latched on to her. She was instantly struck with panic, unable to move or speak. He had the look in his eyes like a panther watching his prey. She wanted to call out to her friends to hide behind them and not have to look at him, but they didn't even seem to notice her. **_Please_**, she thought, **_someone help me._** **_Make him go away or at least stop looking at me. _**Luckily, at that moment, his gaze flickered back to the group of angry teenagers who looked about ready to gut him.

Jamie breathed a sigh of relief and grabbed on to the nearest person's arm, which happened to be Sam. At the feel of the contact Sam looked over to the other girl.

"What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Jamie answered. "I'm just a little freaked out."

"Who wouldn't be," Stephanie broke into the conversation, "With this guy going on about how he owns us." She, along with everyone else was disgusted.

Well, it's been a long day and I bet you're all tired. I'll leave you alone, for now." Then he exited the room through a white door, that was barely distinguishable from the wall, and all fell silent.

"What do you think he meant by 'for now,'" Elizabeth's voice broke the silence.

"I think it means we'll be seeing a lot more of that man," Sam answered. He was right about one thing, they were tired. The wagon hadn't offered a very refreshing sleep and being abducted was an emotionally draining thing. They found some white blankets in a corner of the room and, huddling together in a nest of white, they fell asleep.

After resting for a few hours to regain their ability to walk, the team headed out to the closest city. They still hadn't recovered their energy and needed someplace safer to hide.

A demon city was nothing like a human city. True there were buildings and people, but the feel of the city was entirely different. It was decrepit, for lack of a better term. The two demons of the group reassured their teammates, actually Kurama reassured and Hiei just mumbled in agreement, that many cities were not this. They were just in an older and unkempt part of demon world. Many buildings looked run down, and so did the people. Demons, and other unidentifiable creatures, were crowding the streets making it very hard to walk. However it did make it easy to slip by unnoticed.

"The best thing would probably be to just rent a hotel room and stay there for a few days," Kurama suggested as they pushed through the crowd.

"Riiight. Don't those things cost money? 'Cause the last time I checked, we're broke," Yusuke retorted.

"Oh, money is not an issue," Kurama stated before walking on.

There was a pause before Yusuke burst out "Again with the vagueness, geeze!"

"I'll explain," Hiei put in, surprisingly helpful. "Youko was a thief and made quite a bit of money at his profession. You don't think the fox would just let all that go, do you?"

"So he still has his fortune from stealing?" Kuwabara asked.

Hiei just stared at the other boy for a moment before answering. "Yes. Now it would be a good idea to catch up with the fox. This is not a good city to get lost in." At that they all shut up and focused on relocating Kurama.

By the time they found him, Kurama had already "magically" obtained a place to stay. It was, in all essence, a hotel. He'd only bought them one room, figuring it would be less noticeable, but it held four beds. Hiei opted for the windowsill so the shortage of sleeping space wasn't an issue. After choosing where they were going to sleep, they all quickly fell into a much needed recharge.

Erika awoke to meet pitch blackness. She was depressed to find that she was the only one awake, so she pulled a blanket around her and waited for the others. It only took about ten minuets for other people to rise. And in fifteen minuets Travis, Christian and Elizabeth were all awake.

"What are we going to do now?" Elizabeth asked to group.

"What can we do, we're stuck here." Travis answered her. There was a moment of silence which was quickly interrupted by the blinding lights of the room coming on. The group was immediately hit with the shocking whiteness of the room. The new light also, inevitably, woke up everyone else. Except Jessica that is.

"Um, a little help?" Everyone looked over to see that Jessica had rolled over and was sleeping on a very awake Sam. But before they could pull her off the poor girl, Jessica rolled over again, kicking Mike in the face, and landing in a small ball on the floor.

"She's starting to wake up," Jamie explained. "She always moves around before she wakes up." And just to prove her right Jessica's head popped up with sleep filled eyes and a very confused look on her face.

"What?" she asked the group of people staring at her.

"I was just explaining how you manage to molest Sam and nearly behead Mike while still asleep," Jamie answered her.

"Oh," came the short reply.

"Well, I see you're all awake now," said a smooth, unforgettable voice from the corner. He was back.

"Stop sneaking up on us!" Yami shot at him as she and the others whipped around to face him.

"Aw, I'm sorry, did I fwighten you," He cooed at her mockingly.

"Man you just love to hear yourself talk, don't ja," Mike scoffed. He blinked and suddenly the guy was standing not even ten inches in front of him. He tangled his hand in Mike's spikes and pulled his head up, reviling his throat, which he shoved something around. He released Mike and took a step back.

"What is this thing," Mike yelled as he tried t pull it off. It looked like a metal collar, about one inch thick, and hugged his neck like a choker. No matter how hard Mike pulled he couldn't get it off.

"To put it simply, this is your remote. It lets me control you. After all, lab rats who misbehave are very annoying." As soon as he finished speaking, two dozen metal claws sprouted from the floor, stopping the rest of them from going anywhere. He came around to them one by one and placed an identical collar on them. No matter how much they fought him, trying to push him away and keep him away from putting the same things on them, he was still much stronger and over powered them everyone of them easily.

Once he was finished, and a few paces safely away, the claws released them. After a few minuets of realizing that the metal collars were not coming off, the group opted for glairing at him.

"I'm not going to let some stupid piece of metal control me," Jordan, who had been surprisingly quiet sense their argument in the wagon, stated.

"Well, you really don't have a choice in that," he half laughed at her.

39


	9. Chapter 9

Don't own Yu Yu Hakusho.-.-

Ch.9

It had been an entire day latter, and the Reiki Tantei had finally recovered and ready to leave the city.

"Someone shake Hiei out of his trance and let's blow this joint," Yusuke yelled over his shoulder while indicating to the fire demon sitting on the windowsill. Luckily no one had to chance touching him, for at the sound of his name Hiei rose from his perch and headed out the door without so much as a word. Of course this didn't startle anyone, by now they were used to the way he acted.

It was fairly easy to get out of the hotel without being seen, even Kuwabara didn't get caught. There was no one in the halls and the only matter was slipping past the front desk out into the crowded street where they instantly drowned in the ocean of people. The group continued walking until they reached the edge of town where a great forest grew. This left them with two options, go thorough the forest or take the path around it.

"Well, which way?" Yusuke asked. The group turned to Kurama and Hiei, who were the only real demons in the group so they were their best bet. Even Spirit World didn't have any knowledge about this part of Demon World passed the fact that it existed. Luckily, the two demons they did have were two of the best and both knew almost every part of this unknown world.

"We would be easily noticed on the road," Hiei pointed out.

"Well then let's take the woods," Kuwabara said as he headed towards the trees.

"However the forest is very dangerous also," Kurama commented, stopping Kuwabara in his tracks. "It's a combined territory of many different clans of demons. Plus the plants in this forest have a life of their own."

"But the forest would provided with more coverage, we'd be harder to track, besides what's the point of having a plant master if he can't subdue a few dangerous trees," Hiei retorted. The humans just looked on from the sidelines, completely excluded from the conversation.

"So I guess we take the forest," Kurama decided, and the two demons started for the trees. The rest of the group, startled by the abrupt end of the debate, ran to catch up with their retreating comrades.

Kurama had said that the forest was alive, but that could not accurately describe it. It was just plain creepy. Things were constantly moving just on the edge of your vision. You could swear that the trees kept changing their position and, when you did come across a scarce clearing, void of any plants. There was nothing but suffocating darkness. The group had only been walking for forty five minuets and already they wanted out, everyone except the demons that is. They seemed perfectly at home here, this was their element, and it suited them, if not anyone else. They were going through one of the few clearings when both of the demons abruptly stopped, causing all the humans behind them to run head long into them. Neither Kurama nor Hiei were fazed from this but the humans were now laying in a tangle of limbs on the ground. After a hurried and clumsy untangling, all of them managed to stand up with an "I meant to do that" look on their faces.

"Can you fools control yourselves for two minuets," Hiei shot at them.

"Hey, it's not our fault," Yusuke retorted. "You need to warn a guy before stopping like that. What's the deal any way?"

"We're being watched," Kurama answered him before Hiei had a chance to speak again.

"What?" Yusuke spun around, trying to see through the darkness. "You could have mentioned that earlier!"

"If you hadn't been so distracted by your gymnastics maybe you would have noticed," Hiei remarked. Yusuke just glared at him.

"Um, boys, maybe we should concentrate on that thing Kurama said was watching us," Botan interjected. Her command wasn't very persuading, due to the fact that she was cowering behind the closest person to her, Kuwabara; but none the less they both stopped their argument and focused on the problem at hand.

"We don't mean any harm," Kurama called to the darkness. "We're just trying to pass through." Footsteps echoed through the clearing, dampened by the undergrowth, but in the silence of the darkness, it cut like a knife.

Kurama threw a handful of seeds on the ground which quickly grew into about a dozen lampweeds. The florescent bulbs lit up the clearing, and everyone was startled to find a woman standing barely two feet from them. The only way to properly describe her was "black". She had very long jet black hair that almost reached her knees and seemed to flow around her. Matching black eyes were surrounded by skin so pale it was white. Her clothes were also black. Skin tight pants and shirt with gloves and knee high boots covered all skin except her face. Over everything was a black trench coat that reached the ground. How she managed to maneuver this wood in that outfit, they didn't know.

"Shadow Demon," Hiei stated, ever though that didn't help. What in the world was a Shadow Demon?

"So, who have I caught in my forest?" she asked with a voice that flowed like black silk through a river. Before anyone could respond she disappeared, or more like dissolved into the darkness that was threatening to overtake the light.

"Where'd she go?" Kuwabara shouted.

"I'm right here," a voice spoke from behind them. They all whipped around to find her lounging behind them.

"Same old trick," Yusuke whispered. Without a word she started to examine them, looking at each one individually. Kurama was the last one and her eyes stopped on him. She starred at him for a moment before she smiled.

"Hello Youko."

""Hello Vaala," he greeted her. The rest of the group just gawked at him.

"You know her!" Yusuke, Botan, and Kuwabara half asked half shouted at him in unison.

"She's the Queen of the Shadow Demons. I had a fun little affair with her a long time ago, when I was still just Youko," he explained to them before turning his attention back to the women in front of him. "We would greatly appreciate any help you could give us."

"But of course," she answered him while gesturing vaguely with her hand. "It would be cruel of me not to. Come back with me to my clan, I can get you whatever you need there." She walked away and the Reiki Tantei obediently followed her.

"You seem to be on good terms with her," Yusuke whispered to the fox next to him. Kurama nodded.

"We kept in touch, right up to point where I became Shuichi."

"So what exactly is a Shadow Demon?" Kuwabara asked out loud, completely ignorant of the conversation that had been going on next to him.

"I'd tell you," Kurama answered him, "But…Vaala I believe you'd be the better one to explain." She turned around to face the group but kept walking, backwards. How she managed to not trip and know where she was going, they, once again, didn't know.

"Have you heard of Vampires?" she asked. The group, excluding Kurama and Hiei, nodded. They already knew about this and didn't need to participate in this conversation. "Werewolves" she continued, another nod. "Witches-"

"Would you get on with it!" Yusuke shouted, fed up.

"Yusuke!" Botan yelled at him, horrified, before smacking him upside the head. However Vaala didn't seem to take any mind and continued.

"Well, any 'dark' creature that you humans have come up with is actually a Shadow Demon." She paused a moment to let that fact sink in before continuing. "A thousand years ago, more or less, there was an accident. I'm not going to go into the details about it but most of our species ended up stranded in the Human World. Over the years they split up into different clans, developing slight differences from each other and eventually became different species entirely. One group you humans called vampires, one shape shifters, zombies, witches, werewolves etc… It's sad really. Most of them don't remember what they used to be and there are very few 'real' Shadow Demons left now." She looked away from them and seemed to lose herself in thought. "Someday we may disappear altogether." There was a heavy silence when she was done that seemed to snap her back to reality.

"Kurama said you were the Queen," Botan spoke up. Vaala nodded.

"As I have been for the last five hundred years."

"So, are you younger or older that Kurama here?" Kuwabara asked. Kurama himself was the one to answer that question.

"Oh she's far younger. I was well over a thousand before Shuichi came along."

"Actually, I think you were there to see my clan get divided," Vaala put in as she turned around to walk forward. The rest o the trip passed in silence, but there were only about three more minuets until they reached Vaala's clan, so they didn't have to put us with the awkwardness very long.

Vaala was leading them to a place that looked like little more than a cave. A dark hole in a sheer rock wall did not look like very inviting. However it looked much different on the inside, even though it was hard to tell, it was still the inside of a cave. The floor had been polished until it was smooth and flat, rivaling any palace flooring. Thick moss grew over different sized, carved out, niches in the walls that could only be beds and chairs. Walking further in they discovered whole rooms that had been carved, with tables, chairs, and shelves coming out of the walls and floors, but all the rooms were vacant of life. When the tunnel split it just made more hallways. Vaala led them through the maze of tunnels, deep into the cave, her shoes not making a sound on the hard floor.

The group kept walking until the hall came to an end, leading into a monstrous cavern. You could have fit the Taj Mahal in it. From their perch at the end of the tunnel there was a long steep staircase, also carved into the stone, leading down to the floor. This also answered the question of where all the people were, they were all here. The large cavern was filled with people, all of whom had black eyes, black hair of every length, and pail skin, but though they all looked so identical, they were all completely different. Even more amazing was the cavern itself. Stalagmites had been carved into chairs, benches and the like. Streams poured down the walls, creating waterfalls and pools of all sizes. Some of the pools of water were used for drinking; some for growing crops, and still others for bathing, these were concealed of course. It was an entire paradise, hidden underground and it deserved Yusuke's whistle.

"Whoa, that's impressive," and he meant it. Yusuke had seen many unbelievable things, but nothing beat an entire civilization underground.

"Latter I'll show you around more, but right now I'm guessing you're hungry." Vaala smiled as five, very loud, stomachs agreed with her. The Reiki Tantei realized that they hadn't eaten anything in days. She led them down a different tunnel/ hallway to a large room that acted as a kitchen. There was a large table in the middle of the room, and on it was a large assortment of food. "Go ahead," Vaala gestured to the table "Have your fill," and at her command they pounced on the food.

After devouring the feast, the Reiki Tantei were happy and contently full.

"That was probably the best meal I've ever had," Yusuke said while patting his stuffed belly.

"I hear you man," Kuwabara agreed. The entire group was participating in friendly chatter, except Hiei, when they felt the presence of someone coming towards them. When the person entered the doorway they could see it was a young girl. She was maybe sixteen with the same black eyes, pail skin, and perfectly strait black hair in a shoulder length bowl cut. She was wearing a simple white cotton dress that was a stark contrast to her dark features.

"Excuse me, your highness, we need your assistance," she squeaked.

"Alright," Vaala turned to her guests," Excuse me, I'll only be a moment," and she strode out the door following the girl. There was a silence when she left that was broken by Yusuke's exuberant voice.

"Well, she's really nice. When I first heard Shadow Demon I thought she was going to try to kill us and eat us."

"Yes," Kurama answered him. "Contrary to their appearance and name, Shadow Demons are actually one of the kindest species there is. It's in their nature to help those in need. Unfortunately," he continued, "That's also why they have to stay isolated like this." At the groups quizzical stares he explained further. "Their kind doesn't fair well with others, Shadow Demons are extremely giving and other people take advantage of that and use them. It got to the point where they were nearly destroyed and were forced to isolate themselves."

"That's horrible," Botan exasperated.

"Actually we're doing quite well down here," Vaala's voice came from the door way. Apparently she was back from whatever business she had been attending to.

"Oh, no I didn't mean-" Botan started but Vaala raised a hand to cut her off.

"I understand," Vaala reassured the girl. "It was hard at first to adjust to livening like this, but once you get used to it, it's quite nice."

Once the meal was over, Vaala showed them where they could stay for the night. They each had an individual niche to themselves with a woven screen. Kurama lay in the makeshift moss bed staring at the rock above him with the screen closed. It was dark but the room had an eerie glow that all caves seemed to have. The woven mat, although seemingly flimsy, efficiently blocking off all sound, and he was glad for this. Kurama hadn't had a chance to properly think sense the incident in the field and he needed to get his thoughts together.

**_It's my fault _**he thought**** **_It's my fault they're gone._** **_The humans we were supposed to protect. I failed, but if I can get them back then everything will be fine. _**A picture of a girl, disappearing into the light, as she tried to desperately cling on to him, slipped into his mind. **_The thing that confuses me the most is…why did I freeze. I looked at her, and she was looking back at me…and I just froze._** Thinking about her, his mind began to wander. He saw images of her during the time they had been watching the kids. The way she looked when she was laughing, thinking, or sleeping, her intensity when she was fighting during a training session. Then something popped into his head that really confused him, the way she had looked at him on the field, before all the chaos started. When the Reiki Tantei had first shown up to rescue them, she had looked at him with wonder, not fear of confusion like everyone else, but complete adoration. Now that the image was in his head he couldn't think of anything else no matter how hard he tried. **_Why did she look at me like that?_** He rolled over on his side and stared at the rock wall a few inches in front of his face. "Why?" he whispered to the silence before closing his eyes and falling asleep.

45


	10. Chapter 10

Nope, still don't own Yu Yu Hakusho.

Ch.10

Yami fell to the ground gasping for air. She and the others had been going at this for nearly an entire day. After the collars had been put on them the man, whose name they found out was Korran, had given a warning. By simply pushing a button on that damned remote of his they were all filled with an electric shock. Not just a little zap but one that struck down to your very core and left you humming afterward. That brief taste made them quickly comply with his wishes and quietly followed him down hallways that, just like their previous room, were all white. At the end of one of the many identical halls was the door that they took. Inside was any child's nightmare, a real mad scientist's laboratory. There were tables with straps, large pointy objects laying on trays next to them and countless other objects you didn't want to know what they did. With a haunting reassurance that they would be coming back here sometime, Korran led them through another door at the other side of the lab into another room.

The room that met their eyes didn't seem to fit into this sterile laboratory building. It was basically an arena. The only things that broke the illusion were the absence of stands and a control like room that could be seen through a large window that covered the entire opposite wall. Korran led them to the middle of the arena and stopped them there. From the other side o the room, two people entered through a door and walked over to join them.

"I'd like you to meet my two assistants," Korran preached to his "captive" audience. "Erik and Shaylan." Shaylan was a woman, in about her late twenties, with pale blond hair and ice blue eyes. Erik was a man, about the same age as Shaylan, with a mop of mouse brown hair and dark grey eyes. He was shorter than his partner and seemed to be quieter too, for she was the one who took charge.

"I thought there were eleven, this is thirteen," she stated.

"These two" Korran pointed to Cristian and Seth, "Are extras that tagged along. I figured we could do something with them." The blond nodded, taking it as an answer. "Now for the real experiments-"

"What experiments," Sam interrupted him. "What's the point of all this and what are you going to do to us?" His face stayed calm as he turned to face the disrupting girl, but everything in his stance screamed menace.

"Like I explained before, you are all test subjects in our research. We're doing something with your energy or your human wave lengths if that makes more sense to you. That's already more than you need to know, so if you just do as you're told everything will run smoothly. You two," Korran once again pointed to Cristian and Seth, "Will go with Erik. The rest of you stay put." Erik walked away with his two assigned children following him and Korran and Shaylan went to the control room with the glass wall. They appeared in front of the main control board, which was right behind the window, and started fiddling with the buttons. There was a low rumbling and several large machines emerged from the ground.

"Jamie, go over there," Korran pointed to the machine in the far right hand corner. He then proceeded to assign each one of them to a different mechanism, everyone except for Erika and Stephanie that is. They were put together on the same pillar in the center of the room. Stephanie had been gagged with an intricate strip of metal and Erika was blind-folded with a similar device. Neither of the things would let any sound in or out. Stephanie was stuck to the floor, like how they had been captured at the baseball field, and couldn't move while Erika was free to move around but had no way of knowing where she was going. Korran suddenly appeared by the two and started to give his instructions.

"Now Stephanie, direct your sister where to go so she dose not get hit," Korran instructed. There was a large pillar in between the two girls and at Korran's instructions fired a laser beam at Erika. The light blue beam hit the ground mere inches from her feet only because at the sound Erika had blindly stumbled backwards.

"But she's gagged," Erika protested once she had regained her balance. "How do you expect her to say anything, much less give me directions?" As soon as she had finished her sentence another beam was shot. It grazed her left knee just enough to make her leg give out and make her collapse, leaving a small stream of blood trickling down her leg.

"That's for you to figure out," Korran sneered at the injured girl, he then left them to direct his attention to the others. The next one on his mental list was Mike. The kid was standing next to a smooth dome that didn't look entirely menacing. "All you need to do is try and move freely." Before Mike could ask what he meant the dome started to move. It slowly rotated around until it had made one full circle, and then stopped. There was a moment of silence in which nothing happened, but it didn't last long. Out of the dome shot eleven snake-like arms. One of the arms grabbed onto his waist, and one on each knee, ankle, shoulder, elbow and wrist holding him in place. Mike tried to move his right arm but to no avail. Pushing harder he found that he was capable of moving it forward a few inches, but a sharp pain made him relinquish the fight. The arms that held him had claws on the ends which they used to grab him, they were sharp, and moving against them made the metal dig into his flesh. Korran left Mike to move onto the next subject, Jamie.

He walked over to the girl and didn't stop until they were standing only a few inches apart. His eyes were bearing down on her, but she wasn't one to back down, and glared right back up at him with just as much, if not more, intensity. With out looking away from her he pointed to the nearby pillar and gave her the instructions.

"Destroy it, nothing more, nothing less."

"That's it," she was surprised. She had expected some impossibly insane task.

"Yes, there's a button right on the front, push it and it's destroyed." Now she was definitely suspicious. She cautiously took a step toward the pillar, nothing happened. She took another step and then another and another, it was definitely a trick but nothing was happening. She was only a few feet from it now and everything seemed fine. Then, in the middle of her next step, she found herself on the ground with her head spinning.

"What the hell," she gasped. Korran walked over and lightly touched the air around where she had fallen, it vibrated with energy.

"Did I forget to mention the barrier around it," he scoffed at her.

"Then how am I supposed to get to it?" she mumbled as she stood up and brushed herself off.

"I'd have thought one of you would have caught on by now," he sighed. "That's for you to figure out." At that moment a lazar shot from the pillar, identical to the one Erika and Stephanie were dealing with, and slashed across her right forearm. Gasping she clutched at the torn flesh as the blood dripped down her arm. It wasn't a very deep cut and the blood flow would stop soon, but it still hurt like hell. Korran, being the bastard that he is, merely smiled at her. "You may want to watch for that," and leaving Jamie to deal with her new found problem, he moved on to the last person on his list, Sam.

Sam didn't have a very hard job; all she had to do was watch. He strapped her to a chair that looked something like one of those blow dryers at a salon. At the top there was a helmet of sorts that strapped to her head. There was an assortment of wires and tubes coming from it that attached directly to the chair it's self. She didn't have to do anything, just watch the torment that her friends were going through.

All the other subjects didn't have a specialized device, yet. Instead the rest of them were given one of their own lazar shooting pillars to battle. They had been left like that and, now, nearly a day after they had first entered the room they were exhausted. Beaten, bloody, and battered there were only two things they wanted to do, rest, and kill Korran.

"That's enough," Korran called, reappearing in the room, and at his command all the machines disappeared. He seemed slightly disappointed, but not threateningly so. "It's not like I expected it to work the first time," he mumbled to himself. Korran led them back down the halls towards "their" room; thought it took a lot longer than last time seeing as most of them could barely manage to walk. The only two subjects in the group who weren't physically injured were Sam and Stephanie, but they were so emotionally drained that they might as well have been. When they got back to that annoyingly white room they were reacquainted with friends they had, up till now, forgotten about. Cristian and Seth were sitting there waiting for them.

"Seth!" Yami ran, as best she could, to her much missed boyfriend. "What happened to you, were you hurt?"

"No, not really," he answered her. "But I never want to see another needle again." He conquered her horrified stare with a warm smile, proving that he was alright. The one thing that she loved the most the most about the man in front of her was that he always managed to stay strong, even in the worst situations. She had been lost until he showed up and gave her a pillar of light to guide and protect her, and she was not going to let that go.

"Why?" Mikes voice broke through Yami's thoughts and brought her back to reality. This time it was Cristian who answered.

"That guy named Erik said they wanted to figure out why you were friends with us. What made our energy so special that you befriended us? Although I'm not sure how sticking a bunch of needles in us will explain that."

"I officially declare that this place is insane," Aryn announced.

"Ya man," Cristian agreed with her. The squeaking of a door caused them all to fall silent as they looked for the source of the noise. The culprit turned out to be a small dog door; they had somehow missed earlier, in the only door to the room. Through it were shoved eleven trays and eleven bowls before the flap snapped shut.

"Is it safe?" Elizabeth asked after a moment of confused silence.

"Only one way to find out," Mike declared. He cautiously crept over to the objects in question and picked up the nearest tray. "Its food," he called to the others, and then added "Sort of."

"What do you mean 'sort of'," Sam asked as the rest of them hustled over to join Mike. He showed them the contents on the tray and poked it with a fork.

"Well, it could almost pass as food," he said as the fork in his hand rebounded off of the grayish brown blob on the plate.

"Eeeeeeew, its worst than the cafeteria food, and that's saying something. Is it even edible?" Aryn cringed. Travis, deciding to just take the initiative, pulled one of the trays over to himself, grabbed the fork, pulled a piece of the goo off and shoved it into his mouth before anyone could tell him otherwise. They all stared at him in horror as he chewed the substance in his mouth for long moments. Once he had finally swallowed it there was a long pause.

"Well," Seth encouraged.

"Once you chew it for awhile it's not bad," Travis answered, and that was all the convincing needed. Everyone grabbed a tray and ravishingly dug into the questionable meal. After all, they had not eaten for a wile. Yami held one of the bowls up to her face and stared at it.

"I'm assuming this is water," she mused.

"One can only assume," Jamie, who was also glairing at the clear liquid in her bowl, advised. Yami tipped the bowl to her lips, took a long swig, and gave her critique.

"Yep, it's water, although it's not the cleanest tasting."

"I hope we don't have to stay here too long. I don't know how long I am going to be able to live on this stuff," Cristian complained, with good reason.

"Oh, I'm sure Jamie's boyfriend and his gang will save us eventually," Jordan scoffed.

"Hun," Jamie looked at the girl.

"Kurama," Jordan drawled the word as if she was talking to a slow toddler.

"Are you still on about that," Jamie exasperated. "Somehow I think our current situation is a bit direr."

"I know that!" Jordan retorted. "That's why I'm not making a big deal about it, but I'm allowed to be annoyed." Jamie knew her friend didn't really mean most of what she was saying, she hoped. She was just stressed and taking it out the only way she could.

"Jordan," Jamie pressed her words at her "I'm not going to have this argument with you," ending the conversation. Before anything else could be said the lights went out throwing the white room into black. However this time a few safety lights flickered on, like those you would find in a photography dark room. The setting would have almost been peaceful if it were not for the whole being stuck in a mad demon scientist's laboratory. For there was no question in their minds, Korran was not human. The group found that their nest of blankets and pillows was still there from the day before and they quickly settled down to rest and heal in the sleep that quickly claimed them. They could only imagine what horrors would await them tomorrow and not even their dreams gave them much comfort.

The next morning the Reiki Tantei woke up to find a lavishing breakfast waiting for them. Once they were finished they sat down with Vaala to try and workout their plan of attack. However, before that was addressed, Yusuke brought up a different question.

"Hey Kurama, yesterday you told us that you had old ties to this clan and that they got punked by other demons." Kurama nodded in consent, wondering just where this was going. "Well, knowing you and knowing Youko I just thought it was kinda strange. I would have thought you'd be one of the first demons to take advantage of them." Kurama had a hard time keeping down the laughter that had suddenly formed inside him at Yusuke's statement and even Hiei gave a chuckle.

"Yusuke, I do have morals." Kurama responded with an obviously fake affronted look that just ended up making him look adorable. "I'd managed to gain their clan's trust and that is a rare thing. I wasn't about to through that away," he explained to the ever dense detective.

"Earned their trust, how?" Yusuke asked.

"I explained about their clan's downfall. Well, when their clan was attempting to go underground I helped them. Many demons were not happy about the idea and sought to stop them. I, along with a few others, defended them and gave them the leeway they needed to escape." Vaala was nodding in agreement.

"I remember it. I was only a young child of eight at the time. Kurama here personally rescued me when I found myself on the receiving end of a demon's sword. I was whisked away to safety by a powerful silver fox." Vaala said, adding in more details to Kurama's story.

"Don't give me too much credit, I was only a kitling at the time myself," Kurama spoke with a surprising amount of modesty.

"However Kurama was the only one of our allies that kept ties with us and quickly became much respected among my clan," Vaala finished.

"Now on to the more pressing matter," Kurama brought the conversation back to its intended topic. "How do we go about rescuing the humans?"

"I guess we need to find out where they were taken and how to get to them," Kuwabara noted.

"Excuse me," Vaala interrupted. "Did you say humans?"

"Yeah," Yusuke answered her. "A group of human children were kidnapped and taken to this world, somewhere around here.

"Um…" Vaala seemed hesitant but decided to ask her question anyway. "Why were they taken?" Kurama was the one to answer her.

"Apparently they're being used in some sort of experiment as test subjects." As soon as she heard this Vaala blanched white. Whiter if that's possible.

"What is it?" Kurama questioned.

"Even my clan has heard of it," she answered him. "There's a lab that does experiments on humans. No one knows who's behind it for no one's willing to get close enough to find out."

"I take it that's our place," Yusuke muttered. "So, do you know how to get there?"

"Yes, but I-" but before she could finish Kuwabara jumped out of his seat.

"Then what are we waiting for, we have to go save them!" Kuwabara started running for the door but, as he passed, Hiei stuck out his foot, causing Kuwabara to trip and quickly become reacquainted with the ground, face first. Sputtering he managed to shout "What the…Hiei!" before Hiei gut him off with a glairing retort.

"Baka. Do you even know where the lab is, much less how to get out of this cave?"

"Well no" the carrot top muttered.

"Then I suggest you shut up and listen," Hiei snapped. Kuwabara sulked back to his seat and waited for Vaala to continue.

"I do know where it is, there's hardly a demon around here that does not, but I can't take you," Vaala expounded. "My clan does not dare leave the sanctity of these caves. I am the only one who leaves and I will not go any further than the forest. However I know someone who would take you, for the right price." At this she looked at Kurama.

"I believe I know who you are referring to," the fox answered the quizzical stare. "Although he is expensive I am willing to match his price. Besides, I am sure I can convince Koenma to reimburse me latter," and at his answer Vaala stood from her seat.

"Good, then I will contact Cougar," and she swept out of the room. Yusuke turned to the fox next to him.

"All right Kurama, what are you doing now and who the hell is Cougar?" Hiei, mimicking Yusuke, also turned his attention to Kurama.

"Yes fox, what is going on?" Hiei did not like being uninformed.

"Oh, you will find out in a moment," Kurama reassured them with a smile.

A few hours latter Hiei, Botan, Kurama, Yusuke, Kuwabara and Vaala found themselves standing in the forest at the entrance to the cave. It was impossible to tell what time of day it was sense virtually no light managed to penetrate the darkness between the trees.

"Oh, I do hope we get going soon. Who knows what's happening to those poor kids," Botan spoke up for the first time. She had been unusually quiet all morning. Her statement caused Kurama's mind to bring up echoes of his thoughts last night which he hastily shoved to the farthest corners of the back of his mind. Now was not the time to think about things like that. Latter, when he was alone he could deal with the still present question that lingered in his mind. **_Why did she-_** but before Kurama could finish his mental question a distant rumble interrupted him.

"What is that," Yusuke asked.

"Cougar is here," Vaala answered him simply. The growling grew louder, turning into the growling of an engine. From the darkness of the tree's edge shot five colorful blurs which made a large circle around the group before stopping on a dime in front of them. The blurs were revealed to actually be people. The one in front, who looked like the leader, spoke first.

"Hello Vaala I got your message and came as soon as I could even though I don't usually take things so shout notice you said Youko Kurama was involved so I figured I could make an exception so what is it I'm needed to do," the man rambled in all one sentence with a medium toned energetic voice. Neither Kurama nor Vaala were thrown off from his run together words but the rest of them, including Hiei, were completely lost and could not keep up with his speech at all.

"Hello Cougar," Vaala addressed him. "Yes I did contact you and yes our friend Kurama does need some help, and he is willing to pay." The man titled Cougar was a character to say the least. He had fiery orange hair with yellow highlights that seemed to be stuck in a permanent windblown effect. He was wearing an electric blue and black jump suit along with hot pink sunglasses, despite the lightlessness of the forest. As he had talked he had removed the shades revealing blue eyes that matched his suit. It was now Kurama's turn to confront the man and there were some things that needed to be dealt with, like explaining who these people were. However that didn't seem to be first on Kurama's list for the fox dove right into an explanation of their mission and where they needed to go. After a few minuets of confusion Yusuke could not take the confusion any more and practically exploded on his friend.

"Aaaaaaagh, Kurama I'm sorry. You may know exactly what's going on but I'm completely lost. Ya mind helping me out here buddy?" Kurama turned to his explosive friend whom he was unable to ignore with an apologetic look on his face, and quickly hurried to give them an explanation.

"Sorry Yusuke, I suppose you all would like to know who this is."

Yusuke nodded in agreement but corrected the only mistake in Kurama's assumption. "Yes, but first I think we'd like to know **_what_** he is 'cause I'm going out on a wild limb here and guessing he's not human," Yusuke went on in his usual arrogant tone.

"Ah," Kurama sighed. "Let's see how best to put this," he mumbled to himself. "Well, let's just say that humans were not the first to coin the phrase 'Speed Demon'."

"Soooo their…" Yusuke hesitated.

"Yes," Kurama answered. "In case you have not noticed yet they are very fast and energetic. If you need to get somewhere quickly and efficiently there is really no one else to rely on and I know Cougar personally through…" he hesitated a moment deciding weather or not to tell them that Cougar and his gang had been a get away from his jobs on many occasions. Deciding it was best not to tell them he ended his sentence with "Dealings," and let them figure out the rest for themselves.

"Let me introduce you to the rest of the group," Cougar broke in. "Markay" he pointed to a girl to the right of him with extremely short bright pink hair, red eyes, and wearing a black tube top and skin tight camouflage printed pants. "Jangi" a man positioned just behind Markay with red-brown spiky hair large green eyes (not as great as Kurama's eyes though) and wearing baggy forest green pants and a grey t-shirt. "Dela," a girl with wavy gold hair and pail amber eyes, was wearing a short reddish brown leather mini skirt red tank top and black fish net going down her arms. She was standing behind and to the left of Cougar. "And last but not least, Kor." This man was standing to the left of Dela. He had tan skin and black hair with silver streaks tied back in a lose pony tail and blank gray almost white eyes. His ensemble consisted of form fitting blue jeans and a tucked in white t-shirt with a black leather jacket over it. These names flew by the Reiki Tantei in a fraction of a second and they struggled to try and grasp them.

"So," Kurama spoke up. "Cougar's group is going to transport us to our destination."

"Alright," Yusuke simply nodded.

"So, I guess this is where we part ways," Vaala announced, stepping forward. She would be sad to see them leave but the pain would be bitter sweet.

"Yes it is," Kurama agreed, stepping up to her and taking her hand. "Thank you for everything my friend, I'm in your debt."

"Kurama," Vaala laughed. "I think my clan is still in your debt." At that point Botan popped over Kurama's shoulder, bubbling her gratitude.

"Oh yes, thank you for everything." After everyone had thanked her profusely, even Hiei had eventually been dragged into paying his tribute, Vaala turned to head back to her clan's home, wondering not if but when she would see her new found friends again. However, she had a clan to run and many things to do. She could not waste time pondering idle questions that would one day answer themselves.

55


	11. Chapter 11

If you really need to read the disclaimer again, then refer back to the first ten chapters.

Ch.11

As Vaala walked away, Kurama turned to the rest of his group.

"Well, we should go. There are five of us and five of them so things should divide out evenly." Then realizing that he had forgotten the other half of the introductions, Kurama turned his attention back to Cougar. "Cougar, these are my friends Yusuke, Kuwabara, Hiei and Botan." He pointed to each one as he spoke their names. Cougar seemed to take a moment to digest these names before he spoke again.

"Right, well from what you told me you are in a hurry so let's get going." He turned around and started walking back to his group but stopped and turned back when he realized that no one was following him. "Well…"

"Um, what should we do?" Botan spoke up for the group. Cougar looked from one group to the other; apparently deciding something, then gave them his answer.

"Right, judging on weight and momentum I'd say Blue goes with Dela, Shortman goes with Markay, the Punk goes with Jangi, Carrot-top with Kor and you can ride with me." After waiting a few moments for the group to respond, and realizing that they did not comprehend, he looked to Kurama for assistance. The fox immediately took over.

"Let me translate. Botan, you will ride with Dela, Hiei with Markay, Yusuke with Jangi, Kuwabara with Kor and I will be going with Cougar," Kurama instructed his friends. He was answered with understanding yet still completely baffled stares.

"Um Kurama," Kuwabara spoke hesitantly. "What do you mean ride with them, how are we supposed to do that?"

"Oh right you don't know," Kurama mumbled as he turned his attention to the Speed Demon standing next to him. "I do believe that you can give a sufficient answer," and at Kurama's command he knelt down on the ground with his hand splayed firmly on the earth beneath him. As he slowly lifted his hand, as if he were trying to pull something up, a small stream of smoke began to billow out from that exact spot on the ground. It gathered just in front of Cougar at about waist level and continued to gather until it was about the size of Hiei. Horizontally anyway, for it was stretched out parallel to the ground it came from. The newly formed cloud was a dark grey color with swirls of black running through it. Looking around the Reiki Tantei realized that the other members of Cougars gang were now sporting identical clouds.

"Well, get on," Cougar instructed and he perched him self on the questionable looking vapor just as one would a motorcycle. In response to Cougars actions, Kurama climbed on behind him, just like a back passenger of a motorcycle. Deciding to trust that their friend knew what he was doing, the remaining four members of the Reiki Tantei went to their assigned partner, who were not also sitting on their own…thing, for lack of a better term, and climbed on behind them. It felt, for all the world, like sitting on a motorcycle. A comfortable, billowing, soft motorcycle, but a motorcycle none the less. Kurama and Cougar pulled up in line with the others and Kurama managed to utter one final warning to his friends.

"I'd suggest you hold on tight," as he notably had his arms locked tight around the demon in front of him. The rest quickly mimicked his actions, except for Hiei who hesitantly paced his hands on the girl in front of him, and not a moment too soon. Barely a heartbeat latter they took off. The clouds floated over the ground carrying their passengers at unfathomable speeds so that the trees appeared as no more than distorted blurs. However the Speed Demons, whom the Reiki Tantei had entrusted their lives to, were able to navigate the forest with ease so that they left the trees in a matter of minuets.

"How long is this ride going to be!" Yusuke called over the rush of wind in his ears.

"About a two days journey!" Kurama called back.

"What?" Kuwabara exclaimed. "Didn't Koenma say we would be placed in the general area of the lab!"

"Do you remember how Koenma explained the Demon World as a series of basements!" Kurama asked. At the vigorous nodding of his friends he continued. "Well, when it comes to Demon World 'in the general area' means somewhere in the same basement." After this enlightening piece of information the conversation was put to an end and the rest of the journey was passed in silence, each person wrapped up in their own thoughts as they became accustomed to the quick passed travel.

They had been given a mere twelve hours to heal. The fresh wounds had just begun to scab over, although none of the wielders of the injuries knew this for they were asleep, when the blinding lights of there prison blinked on, awakening all of its occupants.

"What…what's going on?" the sleep filled voice of Aryn spoke up. She got her answer almost immediately as none other than Korran entered the room.

"Get up!" he ordered, his voice cutting through there groggy minds like a knife made of ice. Everyone was instantly on edge, waiting for what he was going to dish out next, but the real question was if they could survive whatever it was. Another event like yesterday would surely kill them. At the hesitant attitude of his captives and the wary stares he was receiving, Korran was prompted to explain what was happening now. It was only fair. "Today's project is going to be a little different from yesterday. After the previous experiment failed to gat results, not that I expected anything else, we have now determined exactly what will motivate you to come out."

"What do you mean 'come out,'" Travis asked.

"All in good time," was the vague answer he received. "Now it would be easiest if you would all be good little children and follow me quietly so I don't have to resort to violence." All the wile he was speaking, Korran's right hand had been fondling a black remote that all the humans eyed warily. Remembering the punishment it had delivered to them last time, via the collars that still clung to their necks, they decided to just shut up and do what their captor asked. Following Korran down the same halls that they had traveled the day before, they were brought to a room that they had glimpsed before. Apparently Korran had kept his promise, for they had returned to grotesque lab like room.

"I really don't like where this is headed," Cristian whispered to her friends around her. The whole group stayed close together lust in front of the door, not wanting to go into the room any further then they had to. Not that it made a difference though. Korran had them either way, and there was nothing they could do about it. Luckily his attention was not focused on them at the moment; rather he was preoccupied with whatever he was tinkering with on the table. It only took him a minuet to finish with what he was doing and when he turned around to face him they saw that he had produced eleven identical test tubes of neon green liquid, but there was thirteen of them. Why were there only eleven doses?

"There is one for each of you, except for Cristian and Seth, now drink it," Korran ordered as he indicated to the tubes.

"Why?" Elizabeth asked him. The question was getting old but Korran seemed to have this thing about not explaining what he was doing.

"Well you don't have to," he responded to the girl. "But I doubt you enjoy those injuries you are sporting. This is a healing potion of my own creation and should patch you up nicely," which explained the shortage of servings. Cristian and Seth were not really hurt so they didn't need it. At the hesitant actions of his subjects Korran added "I do suggest you take it else you might die if we add more injuries to the ones you already have." It's hard to argue with a statement like that and each kid proceeded to down a tube of the green liquid. As soon as the liquid hit their tongue their whole body began to feel warm, a sensation that ended quickly, and when they looked down they saw that they no longer had so much as a scratch. Not that they had time to marvel at this miracle for the screech of their friend instantly brought them out of their thoughts.

Korran had a crushing grip on Jordan's left arm and she was fighting against him with everything she was, but it wasn't anywhere near enough. "I thought I told you not to fight me!" he growled at her, but she continued to try and get away from him, completely ignoring his words. At the end of his statement Korran fished the remote from his pocket with his free hand and, after adjusting it one handed, pressed a button at the top. The girl in his grip immediately crumpled to the ground and barely a gasp escaped her lips. It was official, the collars definitely still worked. Korran half dragged, half carried the girl to a nearby table. Her wrists and ankles where strapped to the table with leather straps making her look for all the world like one of the patients of an insane asylum that you see in the movies. The blank stare in her eyes wasn't helping the look either. It was at that moment that Korran seemed to remember something for he turned away from his victim and walked over to the far wall. There were a bunch of hooks handing from the, one of which he grabbed and pulled away. It was attached to a thick wire that extended from a hole in the wall and came with the man as he headed towards the group of humans that huddled away from him. Upon reaching them he roughly grabbed Sam's collar and attached the hook with the wire to it. Then the process was repeated until all of them were hooked up. Pressing another button on his remote, the wires receded into the wall slamming the resistant humans on the other ends into the same wall. Once they managed to disentangle themselves from each other they tries to pull against the cables that held them, but the unforgiving wires would only come out about two feet before coming to a halt. It only took a moment for the group to realize that it was pointless struggle, the cables were not going to give, and ceased the fight.

Korran was now once again standing over his captured subject, scalpel in hand. As if in slow motion he brought the small blade down to her chest and in a lightning fast movement sliced her open all the way down to her navel. It wasn't until the piercing shriek that the rest of them realized that the girl was completely conscious, and as this realization hit a chorus of grievances broke out.

"You're not even going to drug her!"

"That's just inhumane!"

"You heartless BASTARD!" so on and so fourth. Of course Korran had a reasonable explanation for his actions. At least reasonable to him anyway.

"Anesthetics would only nulinvoid the outcome of the operation, and with that he continued his work. They could not see what he was doing sense his body was in the way, but from their friend's screams they could tell it was painful. After another few minuets of shouting, the group chained to the wall figured out that their words would carry on impact and sense they were chained down there was nothing they could do about it. So they were forced to sit there in silence and listen to their friend being tortured.

In the end each of them went through their own operation and each was just as horrendous in its own way. Sam was strapped down to another chair with another helmet like thing on her head only this time there were a bunch of needles coming from it, and these needles went right into their victims head. Cristian and Seth were strapped to the wall with identical needles poking out from their entire body. Jamie's hands were shoved into large cylinders where black, snake like wires wound their way up her arms and plugged their sharp thin ends into her flesh all the way from the tips of her fingers to her shoulders. The last one to go in was a bigger version of the rest and plunged strait to her heart. Yami's wrists and ankles were bound with cuffs connected to wires and strange currents were rhythmically sent through her body. Mike was chained to the wall next to Cristian and Seth only for him a metal band was placed around his forehead and, starting from the point of contact with the band, a green light began to seep across his body until it went from his feet al the way to the tip of his spikes that were a miracle that they were even still standing. Jessica and Travis needed identical operations. It was a type of brain surgery only also without anesthetics. Aryn was force fed a drink that left her writhing around on the ground for fifteen minuets. Blood was pumped from Erika to Stephanie through clear tubes and was also pumped from Stephanie to Erika. This kept going until they mane a single flow of liquid without any separation between the two. Last but not least was Elizabeth. Korran was absolutely stumped with what to do with her. He had a few ideas but none of them would really suffice. In the end he decided to just open her up, like Jordan and also without anesthetics, and see what made her tick. He found out, to his good fortune that she didn't need any special procedure. All she needed was the right push, and a push was something they were all going to get very soon. After forcing them all to drink another helping of the healing potion he left them, still chained to the wall with the extendable cords, and went to set up the next step in his grand experiment.

60


	12. Chapter 12

If you really need to read the disclaimer again, then refer back to the first ten chapters.

Ch.12

It was a rough two day ride, stopping well after it got dark to make camp, eat, and sleep, then heading out when the sun rose. However they somehow managed to make it through. Unfortunately they now were faced with a new problem. Their transportation was stuck.

"We can't take you any further than this," Cougar announced once they had stopped.

"What, why?" Yusuke implored.

"There is a barrier around this area, and our powers won't work any further than this, so you just going to have to walk from here, my group and I will wait here until you get back," he explained to the exuberant boy.

"Oh," was the only response he got. There was a momentary pause as people dismounted and adjusted to solid, unmoving land. Yusuke looked around a moment before imposing the question "How far do we have to walk?"

"About I day's journey I'd say," Kurama answered him, and with out any hesitation the five members of the Reiki Tantei started their trek with the reassurance that the speed demons would be waiting to transport them once they got back. They were also right about the barrier. All five of them could feel the solid wall of energy pass across them as they entered into the protected area, walking strait towards the hardest part of their mission yet.

**_Damn him, damn that Korran to hell and back_**, Aryn's mind cursed. She was positive that similar thoughts were going through her friend's minds from the seething looks in their eyes, though no one had the energy to voice it. They had only been allowed to rest, as much rest as someone can get hooked to a wall in a mad scientist/demon's laboratory, far couple of hours before they were dragged back into that arena like "testing" room.

They had each been put back with their own device, Sam's, Mike's, Jamie's, Erika's, and Stephanie's machines remained the same as last time while the rest were different, and Cristian and Seth were once again led into another room by Erik and Shaylan.

Travis was faced with a glowing barrier and inside that barrier was a large glowing orb. A tendril stretched out from the orb and attached to the center of Travis's chest before disappearing. After this he found that he could only move about five feet away from the barrier before something heavy dragged at him, his soul, and kept him from going any further. As with everything this "experiment" it was a painful experience. If that were not enough about every three minuets the orb gave off a pulse that vibrated up the now invisible tendril and ricocheted throughout Travis's entire body like an electro shock.

Jordan had something similar to Travis for she was also faced with an orb inside a barrier but she was not attached to a tendril that shocked her. Instead a ball of energy was shot at her and it always hit its target no matter where she moved, but would evade anything else in its path. She had free range of the room, but that did nothing to help her.

Jessica was placed in front of what looked like a robot in the shape of a human. She was instructed to stop it though it had no off switch and apparently had the equivalence of a human mind. The robot started up and began to bombard her with boxing moves and although she had martial arts experience she couldn't even block for the metal of the robot would break her arm. The two of them were enclosed with a larger version of the barriers already in use in order contain their fight; if you could even call it such.

Aryn was forced to question the sanity of their captor when he informed her of her task. She was placed on a pedestal about ten feet up with no way to get back to the ground. About fifty feet in front of her perch was an identical dais which she was informed she was to jump to. At first she refused but found that if she did not comply she was shocked by the collar around her neck. So she jumped and, as expected, she crashed to the ground. Once she stood up she was placed back on the pedestal to try again. After repeating the process of jumping and crashing she tried a different tactic. Instead of aiming for the other platform when she jumped she aimed at landing safely on the ground. This worked and she was spared the painful collision with the floor but was rewarded by another zap. She was given no choice but to strive for the other platform even at its insane distance and there was no way around it.

Yami was placed inside another barrier with another one of the laser shooting poles. She was unable to run away from it and after a few attempts found that no matter where or how hard she hit it with either a fist or a foot it would not break. She was informed that no amount of physical force cold break the pillar, it had been designed that way, and she would have to find another way to hit it. If Yami had just been able to sit and think about it she could have probably figured out another way, but as it was her mind was preoccupied with the rain of laser beams and how to dodge them.

The last person was Elizabeth and her task was a bit weird. She was shoved inside, yet another, barrier along with something that somewhat resembled the robot Jessica was currently dealing with. It appeared to be made of metal and was human shaped but it was deformed. All the usual proportions of a person were there except for one thing. This metal man had no face. Where the facial features should have been there was only a grayish blob that seemed to be trying to ooze past the confines of the head, and as she stared at it the grey mass did just that. It spilled out of the face to cover the head and then trickle down the body until the entire thing was coated. Then it started to disappear, or rather it started sinking back into the body it came from. Once the goop had completely disappeared, there was no longer a featureless robotic body in front of her but a ninja, clad in black with a mask covering its face. Elizabeth stood there in shocked silence and was not disturbed until the robot/ninja came at her, wielding a katana in one gloved hand. So now she was faced with fighting for her life against a ninja, in a confined space, and almost no personal fighting experience. Needless to say she was not winning and within mere minutes was the proud owner of numerous gashes and cuts that had been dealt to her by that sharpened piece of metal.

All the rest of the subjects were put to the same test they had faced earlier, and with just as much success. The only question was, if this kept up what would bake first, there minds or their bodies? And sense all of them were fairly strong minded, the only answer was that they would surly be killed if they didn't find a way out of this, or least find a way to give Korran the answers he was looking for.

This was probably the strangest land that any of the Reiki Tantei had ever seen. It couldn't seem to make up its mind as to what it wanted to be, switching drastically about every five-hundred feet. When they had started their trek they had been walking over flat grass land but it had switched to rolling hills of sand, to rocky land with threatening pits of lava, and so on. At one point they entered into a bog, but they didn't realize it until Kuwabara suddenly found himself stuck waist deep in swampy water. They managed to stay mostly dry, thanks to Kurama's power to make the water plants grow into a floating bridge, but some of the terrain was not so easy. At the moment the group was attempting to cross a seemingly endless field filled with nothing but thick knee-high underbrush, making movement extremely difficult. Kurama could force the plants aside if it got to bad, but the plants were stubborn and did not want to move. Forcing them aside drained Kurama of his power, and sense they were going to need their energy latter, he refrained from doing so too often.

"I don't know about anyone else, but I've just about had it with this place!" Yusuke shouted when the sky turned dark and he realized that sense they had entered this certain piece of land they had moved scarcely a hundred feet in three hours.

"I suggest we make camp for the night," Kurama spoke up as he stared at the deep violet night sky.

"Would you also like to suggest where we sleep, foxboy?" Yusuke retorted in a friendly, yet impatient voice.

"I'm sure Hiei could clear us a spot," the fox answered. So Hiei ended up doing just that; sending out two bursts of flames to circle around the group. Once the fire died away there was left a cleared circle, about twenty feet in diameter, with not so much as a twig left in its wake. By covering the blank ground with thick moss, Kurama was able to make the area a bit more comfortable, and large leaves that radiated a soft heat could be used as blankets. So the Reiki Tantei settled down to get some rest, Hiei creating a fire in the middle of their circle and Kurama growing a few vines bearing fruits and vegetables for a meal.

"Hey, Kurama," Yusuke called as he studied the apple in his hand. "Where do you keep all your seeds? I know they're in you hair somewhere but you always seem to have exactly the plant you need. Do you just keep handfuls of innumerable seeds braided into your hair or what?" This was indeed a prying question so Yusuke expected the fox to be insulted, or maybe even angry at him. However he did not expect the reaction the fox gave. He actually started laughing.

"You know-" Kurama managed to choke out in between dominating giggles, "No one can ever really figure-figure that answer out. I am not so stupid as to have large amounts of sprigs gr-growing on my head. I use dimensional pockets." This last statement got him a bunch of confused stares from everyone except Hiei, who was not listening.

"Who the what now?" Kuwabara exasperated.

"Dimensional pockets are, as the name describes, pockets in space time. They can store innumerable amounts of mass while retaining no actual weight it's self. I have three attached to random locks of my hair in which I can store an infinite amount of seeds, and they are designed so that only I can locate and access them. Youko also has one sewn into the inside of his tunic, but I refrain from this for the simple fact that it is fairly probable to lose or destroy clothing in a fight." The silence that followed after Kurama's speech was almost immediately by Botan.

"But how can that be!" the fairy girl exclaimed. "Spirit World stopped the production of such things centuries ago!"

"Come now," he said as he flashed Botan a million dollar smile. "Every fox knows how to spin a little magic." The only response this got him was a small 'oh' from the girl before she fell silent. The rest of the night passed by without much more conversation as the members of the Reiki Tantei snuggled under their leaves and vainly tried to get some sleep.

64


	13. Chapter 13

If you really need to read the disclaimer again, then refer back to the first ten chapters.

Ch.13

After what seemed like, and was, hours of their personalized torture tests, they did not seem to be making anymore progress than the last time. No one could figure out why they were being put through this, let alone what the outcome was supposed to be, and Korran was not giving out any answers. However, unbeknownst to the test subjects, their desperation was exactly what Korran was looking for. The more desperate they got, the closer they came to the answer. Nothing like hopelessness to bring out someone's ability.

It started with the sisters who were in the middle of the room. Erika was getting bombarded on all sides with the brutal lights that were shooting out of the pillar in front of them, and all Stephanie could do was watch. If she could talk then it would be a simple matter of how to direct her sister. She could practically hear the instructions she needed to give in her head. **_Right, left, back-up, duck, left again_**, but there was no way to relay the messages.

As Stephanie pondered their own helplessness, she watched her sister trip and stumble to the ground. At the same time the pillar prepared to fire again, but Stephanie noticed something odd. It was aiming about a foot above Erika's head. It was almost sickeningly obvious. Her sister, in a blind attempt to get away would jump up right into the oncoming blast. **_No, Erika, stay down,_** she was screaming in her head, though she knew the other girl could not hear her. To her astonishment Erika stopped half way up, the beam just barely missing her head, and sat back down.

"Fu," she called. "When were you un-gagged?"

**_That's an idiotic question,_** Stephanie thought. **_ Of course I haven't been un-gagged._**

"You haven't? Then how come I can hear you?" Stephanie paused to take in her sister's words. **_ Did she really say what I think she said? But she couldn't have heard me._**

"Actually she can," an all too familiar voice spoke right beside her. Stephanie turned to see Korran standing there with a smug look of triumph on his face. "So one of you has finally broken through. I was wondering if you two would be the first ones." He proceeded to remove both the gag and the blindfold from the sisters and stood back to let the expected downpour of questions come at him.

Stephanie was experiencing the weirdest sensation in her life. There were a million questions running through her mind, as to be expected, but in the back of her mind she could hear a million more questions and thoughts that did not belong to her. "Am I reading my sisters mind?" Stephanie asked. It was the loudest question in both the girl's minds so it was the first one she asked.

"Well, sort of," he answered. "Yes, you can hear each others thoughts but it is more than that. You have a telepathic connection that allows you complete access to your sister's mind." The two girls just stared at him. What are you supposed to say to that? The two of them were hustled into a corner to watch the rest of the seen unfurl.

Once Erika and Stephanie were unleashed it seemed to start a chain reaction. A wave practically washed over the others as one after the other they discovered their abilities, starting with Mike. He was getting fed up with robotic arms and the pain they caused in their place of contact when he tried to move. He was bleeding, he was tired, he was just plain fed up, but mostly he was angry at himself for not being able to do any thing about it. However not even two minutes after the sisters had been released, he began to feel a weird sensation. There was something warm bubbling up from inside him and just when it felt like it consumed him entirely he began to glow a bright shade of blue.

When the light faded away it left a strange looking mike. His body and the clothes on it were still the same but there were now blue demon markings visible on his face and arms, and the tips of his spikes were tinged with the same blue. Unfortunately he was still held captive by the arms, but as his seething hatred for the devices racked his brain something else started to happen. It the exact same places, and only in those places, where the claws held him he began to glow blue again. When he did Mike found that the pain had gone away, and the metal was no longer digging into his flesh. He tried to move his arms and found it surprisingly easy. The arms were still trying to restrain him by holding him still but with barely a thought Mike found that he could easily out muscle them and make them move with him. After demonstrating his new found freedom, Korran released Mike and told him to sit with the other two girls with the promise that he would explain everything once the others were done.

The next one to come was Sam. She had not gone through any impossible tasks or really been hurt him in any way. The whole time she had been sitting there in her chair with no other choice but to watch her friends suffer. **_If only I could help them,_** she thought,**_ but I'm entirely useless. All I'm doing is sitting here. I should at least be suffering like them, but I can't even do that. _**The people around her were screaming and suffering and there was nothing she could do. She watched as Yami was hit directly in the chest with one of the laser beams and fell to the floor; she did not get back up. **_Oh please,_** Sam begged in her mind.**_ Be strong at get up. You have to keep going. The thing that you need right now is strength and I can't give that to you. _**At that point it was almost as if something snapped in her mind. Yami needed strength and as she concentrated on that feeling she watched as Yami raised herself from the ground and continued the useless attempt. **_ What the… _**she decided to try it again. Looking around she noticed Aryn start to falter and concentrating on the girl and the strength she needed she watched Aryn surged with new found energy. Sam continued to do the same one for each of her remaining friends and once Korran noticed this he unbound her at took her over to sit with the others that were finished.

Jessica was the next down the line and as expected she was the breakthrough. It was actually a very subtle and easy change. She would think to her self that she wished the robot she was faced with would this or that and one time it did. Then a moment latter it followed her silent commands again. Deciding to experiment she tried directing her commands at it. Sometimes the thing would follow her and sometimes it would not but the longer she tried the more frequently it obeyed her. She kept this up and once the robotic man would do anything she told it, whether she said it out loud or not, Korran released her to go with the others.

Jamie's realization was not quite so easy, although it was completely by accident. One of the beams caught her in the leg, making the limb go out and causing her to fall. However the hand that she flew out to brace herself with did not come in contact with the floor, but instead hit the barrier. It stuck there like glue and no matter how hard Jamie pulled she could not get it off. Of course she did the stupidest thing possible and braced her other hand on the barrier to give herself more leverage and found both her hands now stuck to the shimmering air. The space around her hands began to vibrate and glow as the energy from the barrier began to collect towards the area where her hands were stuck. Her body almost seemed to go into auto pilot as she gathered up the energy around her and focused it at the pillar. A beam, very similar to the ones that had been aiming for her, shot forth and hit the pillar, right were the off switch was, and blew the entire thing to pieces. After this, like the others, she was instructed to sit and wait with the group.

Both Travis's and Yami's breakthroughs were short and simple. Travis, after about the millionth time he was shocked started to really just want that floating sphere to wither and die. Of course, it being an inanimate object, he assumed, he was not quite sure haw that would work. However he did not need to know for the tendril that had attached to him became visible again and started to glow. All the hatred that Travis had built up for that damn floating ball seemed to travel down the string and once it reached the other side the sphere started to get smaller and smaller until it disappeared.

Yami's enlightenment was just as painless. The answer practically smacked her upside the head and she could not believe she hadn't figured it out earlier.**_ Fuck it! I can't believe what a dumb-ass I am. What were all those hours I spent learning Ki worth if I'm not going to use it. No physical attacks hun, well I don't know how well this will work but here it goes._** She pointed her finger, like a spirit gun, at the pillar and focused her energy. Once she fired at it the thing instantly blew up. **_ Holy shit I didn't think it would actually work! I'm surprised I even hit it with how bad my aim is._**

By this time Jordan was huddled in a corner as far away from the other floating orb, the one that was attacking her, as possible. Not that it was doing her any good, she could not defend against it, she could not run away from it, and she had absolutely no idea what to do. As another blast headed her way she put up her hands in a messily attempt to shield herself and waited for the impact, but it never came. When she opened her eyes she found that the energy ball that had earlier been threatening to hit her was now firmly clasped in her hands. The longer she held onto it the stronger she began to feel and, what she did not notice, was that the sphere that had been firing at hare as shrinking in proportion to her increase in energy.

Elizabeth on the other hand was having a bit more difficult time. She had no idea where to even begin to try and stop the ninja/robot that was attempting to maim, and or, kill her. All she had managed to do was run around in circles to avoid the thing and she didn't know how much longer she could keep it up. Isn't there anything that could help me, I'll take anything at all. At that point images of people in her life that cared for her and would never want to hurt her started flashing through her mind. How very much like her brain to start thinking about a random topic that would not do her any good now. **_Unless this robot suddenly turns into my favorite teacher or something and the odds of that happening are none._** As soon as this thought entered her mind the robot froze and the liquid like grey matter that she had seen before started to leak from its face and cover it's entire body. Once the stuff absorbed, Elizabeth was left looking into the face of her third grade teacher. He looked to the sword he had raised to her head and stumbled backwards, dropping the sword.

"What am I doing!" he yelled. "I can't harm you, you were my favorite student." At which point Korran deactivated it, turning it back to how it looked when Elizabeth first saw it, and instructed her to go over with the others.

Now there was only one human left it the tests, not the she noticed though, she was busy dealing with her own problems. Another thing se did not realize was that now every time she jumped she got a little farther out, and she was starting to land on her feet more. Of course she didn't realize this was happening until she jumped and found herself standing safely and the opposite platform. She tried it once again and found that she could for some reason now jump the insane distance with ease. She noticed Korran signaling her to come down below her and, with out thinking, jumped. On the way down she somersaulted backwards, putting her in the perfect position to land on her feet right in front of the man. Once she was safely on the ground she double blinked as the stunt she had just pulled off hit her.

"What the-" she started however Korran cut her off.

"I'll explain in a moment. I'm sure everyone has a lot of questions so if you will just follow me I will explain them," and he walked out of the room with the humans following obediently behind him, their overwhelming need for answers overriding their feeling of being baby ducks.

Once they were all seated in their room, the one they had been sleeping in the past few days, they all stared up at Korran, waiting to hear his long over due explanation. Before he began both Set hand Christian joined them and were filled in on what had happened while they were separated. Sense neither of them had been there nor had any weird unexplainable powers, they felt that they did not need to talk or ask any questions.

"Let's see, where to start," he pondered. "I guess I'll just start at the basics. First off each one of you has developed a special spiritual power. Erika and Stephanie have a telepathic communication and I believe that is pretty much self-explanatory. Mike is a Berserker, or in other words becomes a powerful demon like thing when he is angry or upset. Sam is an Empath. Aryn is a Cat Demon. Jamie can manipulate the energy around her, and Jessica can manipulate other people's minds. Jordan can steal other's energy for herself. Yami had the power of Ki. Elizabeth has the power of improbability," he named them all as he counted them off on his fingers. "And Travis…well Travis's is hard to explain. Basically it's like your energy has claws and when you push that energy onto people it claws at them and shreds their own energy."

"Alllllriiiiight," Elizabeth spoke up. "But why do we have these powers…er…why did you give them to us, er…I don't know."

"From the beginning, all of you were born with special, dormant, powers. Those powers created a connection between all of you that drew you together. Hence the reason you all currently lived in the same city. All I did was force you true nature to come to the surface," Korran explained.

"What I'm having trouble grasping is the fact that we've had kick-ass powers all this time and didn't know about it. How does someone not realize that?"

"Well," Korran ventured. "Take Aryn for example. A Cat Demon must be mixed up in her ancestry somewhere and that blood is just showing up stronger in her." There was a really long silence after this that was broken by Jessica.

"So where are you involved in this?" she asked.

"I," he answered, am the person that is going to harness your power. Now if we're done here I suggest you get some sleep. Tomorrow we're going to start training you so you can build up and control your power," and he swept out of the room. The lights went off and the safety lights went on, as usual, and all was quiet. That is until Yami fell over with a moan.

"What's wrong?" Jamie asked her friend.

"I think my brain just broke," was the reply.

69


	14. Chapter 14

If you really need to read the disclaimer again, then refer back to the first ten chapters.

Ch.14

At first the group was looking forward to the prospect of training. No more painful tests and even more agonizing procedures. Instead they were going to start something they could actually do. However, they were sadly mistaken for thinking things were going to be easier, for the training was as grueling as everything else they had been through so far. After being awakened by the blinding lights of the room, like they were every time, they were given a meal, another dose of the healing mixture and hustled out of the room.

This time they were taken through a door directly opposite the room they were staying in. The door led to a long hallway of even more doors. Seth and Christian, not having any powers they needed to develop had been whisked away to whatever it is they went through while the group was split, so only the eleven were led to the hall of doors.

Without so much as a word or a command, Korran took them one by one and shoved them into specific doors until they were all divided.

"What the hell," Yami gasped as she looked around her new surroundings. She was in a room with a dark wood floor and grey cement walls; one entire wall was taken up by a large cabinet. Other that that the room was bare, save for the large screen that was currently being lowered from the ceiling. It flickered on and a very familiar, if not irritating, face appeared.

"Now everyone, we are going to begin your training," Korran's voice boomed over a speaker that was nowhere in sight. "The rules are simple. Just follow everything your trainers tell you and there will be no need for needless pain. I designed them specifically for this task so they do know what they are doing." At that the screen blinked off and two figures walked through a door in the corner that Yami could have sworn hadn't been there before.

The first one to enter was a woman. She had long red hair that was in a loose knot at the base of her neck. She was also wearing the white coat the seemed to be uniform here, but underneath it she was clad in a suit of form fitting black spandex. She was obviously not afraid to show off her flawless features. The person behind her was a man that appeared to be made of all muscle. His coal black hair was just long enough to cover his ears and he had abandoned the white coat to don a red tank top and black pants. The pair had matching storm grey eyes that offered no merci. Not that Yami was expecting any. She was starting to get used to this work till you drop routine.

"Alright twerp," the man spoke up. "You heard him. You're to do exactly as we say." His voice was a bit gruff and grated on Yami's already taxed nerves.

"And what if I don't," Yami protested. She knew it was probably the stupidest thing she could do, given her circumstance, but she could not help it. She was a natural rebel. In answer, the woman took out a rod from her pocket that looked like it belonged in a Star Wars movie. Only instead of producing a light saber it sprouted some sort of energy whip that made painful contact with Yami's left shoulder.

"Then that happens," the woman sneered.

"Yeah, got it," Yami's hissed between clenched teeth. Little did she know that all of her friends had been placed in identical rooms as hers and were faced with identical trainers that put them through their own training.

The so called training lasted for ten hours strait. The humans actually started to catch on to their new found abilities fairly easy. Partly because every time they did something wrong they were painful punished, and partly because it just seemed natural. Eventually the ten hours ended and all of them were herded back into the main room where they reconvened with the two missing members of their group. More food was pushed through the slot in the door, along with some healing drink, for those who needed it, and were given nine hours to eat sleep and heal. After the nine hours they would be woken up to repeat the former pattern of training and healing.

When they finally woke up, after a few hours of sleep, they barely felt rested, and the prospect of the task still ahead of them didn't make them anymore cheerful. However the first thing they had to worry about was getting across the land. Luckily the night of rest had given Kurama a little extra energy and he could force the bramble out of their way for the fest of the field. Once they managed to get to the end of the wild plain they found themselves faced with an overgrown jungle. The going was slower than they expected and it took them a good twenty-four hours to navigate it. However they were eventually rewarded with the fruits of their labor. They came across a small building, though it was only a storage house, it meant that they had reached the right place.

It was the end of another grueling ten hour training session and like usual they were dead tired. Korran, like usual, was escorting them back to their room when Mike randomly burst out against the demon. Something none of them had been willing to do for a while.

"You can't keep us here forever," the spiky haired boy blurted out. "Something's bound to bring this crashing down at one point or another." Of course Korran's response to this was as expected. After sending the boy to his knees with the electricity through his collar he grabbed the boy's hair and yanked him up till he was at face level.

"Trust me. You will be here until I say so, and let me warn you. I don't plan to ever release you," and he let the boy topple back to the white floor before bustling out of the room and shutting the door. All of the kids waited a heart's beat before rushing to their fallen friend. After realizing he was perfectly unharmed they were put at ease; however that did nothing to ease their curiosity.

"Mike, what the hell were you thinking," Travis practically spat at him. "Do you want to get hurt?"

"Yeah Mike," Aryn commented. "What was with the sudden outburst?"

"I'll tell you after the lights go out," he whispered to them before falling silent. There was a squeaking as the usual meal was delivered and the humans readily devoured along with the green potion to heal their newly acquired injuries. Once they were finished the lights went out and the dim lights came on. Usually the group would try to sleep now but they were too interested in hearing Mike's explanation.

"All right so what's up?" Elizabeth asked. In answer Mike held up a small black box witch turned out to be Korran's remote.

"What! How did you get that," Jordan gasped.

"I'm not so stupid as to act up without reason." At this he started to laugh at himself. "I guess my years of robbing convenience stores have pain off."

"Ok, so what are we going to do with it?" Yami asked him.

I was hoping to find a way to deactivate these things around our necks," he answered. "Hey, Seth, you're a computer guy. Come help me with this," so the two of them began to tinker with the small device. At one point they messed up, accidentally shocking the entire group, but eventually they figured it out, or at least they thought they did.

"So who wants to be the scapegoat?" Seth addressed to the group.

"What do you mean?" Jamie asked him.

"Well we really need to find out if these things have really been shut off." After a long pause of people waiting for someone to volunteer so they wouldn't have to, Stephanie spoke up.

"I guess I will," she answered, none too eagerly. She was a bit of a masochist but even so those electrical shocks were not enjoyable. Mike pointed the remote at her, adjusted a dial and pushed the button. Nothing happened.

"So these things are dead?" Sam asked, pointing to her own through.

"Yes but we should keep them on so no one will get suspicious. Now even if he has more than one remote he won't be able to control us." There was a general uplifting of the group at the thought of that sparse freedom.

"So tell me," Cristian ventured. "Why did you have to wait until the lights were off to tell us this?"

"Because they watch us through that window," he answered. "I convinced one of my trainers to tell me that they don't observe us when the lights go out, so I had to wait till then."

"I guess that leaves the universal question," Yami spoke up after a moment of awkward silence. "What are we going to do now?"

"Isn't it obvious," Aryn gawked at her. "Now we find a way out of this hell hole. I don't know about you but with all the training we've been going through I've gotten a pretty good handle on my new abilities. Well, on the basics anyway. But the point is now we now have a way to fight back."

"My thoughts exactly," Mike agreed with her. "At the end of that corridor, where all of our training rooms are, there is a door that I have never seen anyone use. My guess is that it's the best bet to the outside."

"Aren't you forgetting that there is an exit at both ends of the hallway," Jamie put in. After a long discussion, and debate, on what to do, the group finally came to a conclusion. They would split up into two groups and each group would take a door. Sense the sisters had a mental connection they decided that one would go with each group and whichever group found the way out first, that sister would send the directions to her sister. Also Cristian and Seth had no abilities so they were put in different groups. The rest of the positions were decided by abilities and skill level. Although it took a while to decide the groups eventually stood as such. Erika, Jamie, Sam, Mike, Yami, Seth, and Jordan would make up the first group and take the door at the left end of the hall. The second group consisted of Stephanie, Jessica, Aryn, Elizabeth, Cristian, and Travis, and they would be taking the door to the right. The rest of the night was spent planning exactly how they were going to execute their escape and it was eventually decided that once Korran came to get them he would be in store for a well deserved shock of his own.

73


	15. Chapter 15

If you really need to read the disclaimer again, then refer back to the first ten chapters.

Ch.15

"Get up!" Korran commanded of the already awake humans. It was time for another round of training and Korran was anxious to continue their progress. It was the same routine as usual. Wake the humans, make sure they had been healed the night before, and lead them to the hall containing their training rooms. However it was here where everything went awry.

"Fleeeeeeee!" Mike yelled, not ten seconds after the door had closed behind them, and the group split into its predetermined plan. Erika, Jamie, Sam, Mike, Yami, Seth, and Jordan going left and Stephanie, Jessica, Aryn, Elizabeth, Cristian, and Travis going right.

"Oh no you don't," Korran called after them as they scurried away as he groped in his pocket for the remote he assumed would be there. When he failed to locate it he became frantic and started to hurriedly search the rest of his outfit for the elusive device. With Korran distracted, all of the humans managed to make it to the other side of the door, and the last image they saw of the demon was of him striping off his white coat to thoroughly search its contents.

"We made it out!" Jamie exasperated to her friends. "Now what do we do?"

"I don't know," Yami answered from just behind her. "But whatever you do, don't stop running." So the group plowed blindly ahead. It seemed as if there was no end to the maze of halls, but the rooms seemed to be getting more and more impersonal, as in more storage closets than labs, as they went so they must be going in the right direction. Jordan had just managed to pull to the head of the group when she opened a door and charged through with out looking and ran full force into something hard, causing her to fall flat on her ass.

"So now what do we do?" Botan asked as the group stared at the large complex building in front of them. They had successfully managed to find their way to the main building and were now faced with the problem of a large amount of ground to search.

"We split up," the fox decided. "Botan, you Kuwabara and I will enter through there." He pointed to an entrance fifty feet to their left. "And Yusuke and Hiei can enter through there." He pointed to another entrance about fifty feet to their right. "If you manage to find any of the kids inform us using the communication mirrors." With their instructions given to them the group split up to go in their assigned directions.

It did not take Yusuke and Hiei long to find a group. Yusuke had been running just ahead of Hiei and right when he was about to open a door it swung away and an object came crashing into him. Looking down he saw that there was a girl now sitting at his feet and there were others standing just behind her. It did not take long for his brain to comprehend that these were the humans he had been looking for. There was an awkward silence where both parties just stared at each other, not daring to believe what their eyes were telling them, which was eventually broken by the sound of Mike laughing.

"I can't believe it was so easy," he choked out. "You guys are here to help us, right?"

"Yeah," Yusuke answered. They could not help it. They all started laughing, except Hiei who just smirked to himself. It had been almost too easy, but they were not about to jinx their luck by complaining. After getting a brief description of what had transpired so far they started their journey to the outside world. **_So we only have half of them. Well that's half more than we had before._** Yusuke tried to contact Kurama, via his mirror, and report what had happened but the fox was too preoccupied to so much as pick up. Kurama's group was having no where near as much luck trying to locate the remaining humans.

Their group had been running for nearly fifteen minuets, winding their way through the building, when Aryn suddenly stopped, causing all of the others the halt with her.

"What is it?" Elizabeth asked her friend.

"I hear foot steps," the other girl answered. "I think someone is coming this way."

"What?" Travis questioned. "I don't hear anything."

"Well they are far away right now but they are coming towards us at a surprisingly fast rate." Aryn explained, and the group decided to escape through a nearby door. Just as the last of them filled through, their pursuers rounded the corner.

With his fox senses Kurama could tell that they were getting close to a bunch of humans, and sense he recognized their scents he could guess who they were. However he was not quite fast enough and entered the hallway just in time to see someone disappear through a door. Botan, Kuwabara, and Kurama followed them and came upon a white room with a multitude of other doors which the humans were escaping through, each going through a different one. Kurama managed to grab one girl before she slipped away, and held onto her fast, for her initial instinct was to fight and get away.

Stephanie stopped struggling once she saw who her captor was and just gapped at the pretty red head in front of her.

"Where are your friends?" he insisted of her. It took her a moment to answer sense she was still trying to recover from the abrupt meeting. However she did manage to stutter out an answer.

"We thought you-you were from the lab and coming to t-take us back." Now that she thought about it, this was going to make things muck more difficult.

"Take you back. You mean you escaped?" The girl in front of him vigorously nodded in answer.

"Kurama, what should we do?" Kuwabara spoke up. His friend sighed while thinking over a solution. This could take awhile.

"Split up and try to capture them. When you manage to locate someone bring them back here. Stephanie, remain here and don't go anywhere. We need to try and make this as simplistic as possible."

So the craziness began with everyone running around in every direction. Hiei, being the fastest, caught up to someone first. He grabbed Travis by the back of his shirt, nearly choking him, but effectively stopping him so he could explain to the human what was going on and lead him back to the meeting room. Kuwabara brought back both Aryn and Jessica at the same time but only because while he had been chasing down Aryn the girl had run smack into Jessica, knocking both girls to the ground and allowing Kuwabara to catch up. Kurama had an easier time than both of them. All it took was a few Guardian Spies to locate the remaining humans, and hold them in place until he managed to reach them. All in all it was a good half an hour before everyone was gathered in the same room.

Alright, is everyone accounted for," Kuwabara demanded of the now complete group.

"Yes," Aryn spoke up. "This is everyone in our group. The rest are in another group." It was not until then that Kurama was able t o open his communicator, which had been ringing nonstop for the last five minuets, to see what the others had to report.

"Hey Kurama, took you long enough," Yusuke's voice echoed from the mirror. We found a group of kids."

"Good, so did we," the fox answered. "Do we now have every one?" After each group rattled off a list of all the humans they currently had with them it was deduced that, yes, they could now account for all the kidnapped humans. The only thing left to do would be to reconvene outside the building. After discussing where the meeting place would be, each group set out to return to the other, with no one really saying much of anything.

"So you guys really came to save us!" Jordan exclaimed once everyone had been reunited and stories of events so far had been exchange, and the damn annoying metal collars had been shedded. It did not take long for the group of human friends and the Reiki Tantei to warm up to each other. Actually the two groups seemed to get along perfectly, and as they started their slow journey back to where their transportation was waiting, they easily feel into comfortable conversations with each other.

The only person who had not said anything sense everyone had meet up was Jamie. But how could she even think of getting her voice to work when he was standing right there. Many people had called her crazy over the years for her strange fixation with a certain anime character but now she all those people had to eat their words. Sometime after her eleventh birthday she had been introduced to Yu Yu Hakusho, fallen in love with a character and gotten hooked. It was now more than four years later and her obsession had stayed. Of course now that the object of her desire was right now scarcely three yards away from her she could not think of anything to say to him. All she could do was look at him out of the corner of her eye, and admire him.

He had almost forgotten his earlier dilemma, but after seeing her again Kurama's mind was bombarded with renewed questions. At one point he could have sworn he caught her looking at him but her attention was directed at someone else so fast he was not sure if he had really seen it. Either way he decided that, when an opportunity arose, he needed to talk to her.

After a few hours of walking the humans needed a break, and the Reiki Tantei would not mind the rest either. They were parked in another odd patch of land. It seemed to be entirely made of shale, with little waterfalls appearing here and there, trickling down the plated rock. There were also random islands of trees among the rocky land and one of these islands is where the group chose to stop. Some of them were lounging against a tree, and some where lying on the ground. Kurama, who was lying against a tree, was pondering if just maybe this was a good time to approach her. She about ten feet in front of him and to the right, and was currently swirling her fingers around in a nearby trickling stream. Just as he made his resolve to go over to her one of her friends, Yami, sat down newt to her. Well it looks like his window of opportunity had closed. He definitely did not want to talk to her with other people around.

"Hey," Yami acknowledged her friend as she sat dawn. "You definitely suppressed me," she continued once she was seated. Jamie looked up from the swirling water to look into the soft face of her friend.

"What do you mean," she asked.

"Well, I just figured you would be glomping Kurama, or something, the moment he was in your sights," the ebony haired girl explained. Jamie just smiled and shook her head.

"I don't have time to worry about that right now, given our current condition," she commented. "Besides, despite what people might think, I would never d that to him. It's disrespectful if you don't know them and it's got to be annoying."

Yami regarded her friend carefully and tried to determine what would be best to say next. She rarely acted like this and the right words could inspire her to do something great, but the wrong ones could sent her retreating back into herself. So she figured it would be best to say as little as possible and stick with the obvious. "You've been waiting for him for years. You can't simply let him slip away."

"Yeah, of course not. But I'll worry about this after we sort all of this chaos out, and that was the last thing Jamie said before following silent. **_She really confused_** Yami thought. **_But I don't blame her. She's been hoping for this for years and suddenly it's just thrown in her face. _**However Yami was not that worried about her friend. She was a strong person, when it came right down to it, and would not let her chance pass her by. However neither of them would have guessed that the topic of their conversation was thinking along the same lines. Slowly working out his thoughts and piecing things together until he was interrupted by Yusuke taking seat next to him.

"Well, in the end everything worked out smoothly," Yusuke laughed.

"Yes, too smoothly. It bothers me; someone should have tried to stop us. After working so hard to capture them they would not just relinquish their prize so easily," the red head commented. Sam, who was near by could not help but overhear the conversation and joined in.

"Yeah, it's strange. I expected that guy to come after us. I wonder why he did not."

"Oh didn't I," a voice spoke from behind the cluster of trees. The voice was unforgettable, so it was no surprise when Korran stepped out from behind the trees. Shockingly it was Kurama who spoke first.

"Karron!" At first the other demon looked shocked but when he saw who the speaker was his eyes narrowed to dangerous slits with daggers coming from them.

"You," he spat the word as if it were a curse. However he quickly composed himself, although the icy hatred did not leave his eyes. "I'm sorry to disappoint you but I am not Karron. I'm his twin Korran."

"Pft, I've got to say that that whole matching twin name thing is really lame," Yusuke spoke up out of the blue.

"It is not my original name but the one I adopted after **_you _**destroyed my brother." At the "you" he turned his attention back to the fox. "You and that girl."

"Did I miss something, what girl?" Kuwabara asked. As soon as he asked Korran disappeared and just as soon reappeared right in front of Jamie with her chin held tightly in his grip, forcing her to look at him.

"It was obvious from the moment I saw you. You are the girl responsible for what happened t o my brother. Well, her reincarnation anyway." From the gasp he heard he guessed that the fox knew what he was speaking of, although he was the only one.

"I must be stupid!" Yusuke shouted. "Because I have no idea what's going on!"

"Yusuke, do you remember that story I told you?" Kurama asked him. At Yusuke's nod he continued. "Well this demon here is the twin of the one I worked for, and Jamie is the reincarnation of the girl I abandoned." Once he explained this he stopped and thought for a brief moment before addressing Korran. "What do you mean 'destroyed your brother.' All I did was refuse to continue working with him." Korran turned to face the fox, without letting go of the girl.

"I'm not sure what you said to him but he changed. He became less motivated with his work, started questioning it, and once this girl died he stopped it altogether. Without the inspiration of his experiments he simply wasted away. But I won't quit and I won't give up. I will finish my brother's work, and I can't think of a better way than by using the two people who brought him down."

"Hn," Hiei stepped forward. "I can gauge your power from here, you are weak by yourself. The only thing that gives you power is those gadgets of yours. Do you really think you will be able to defeat all of us?"

"Your right little man," Korran scoffed. "It's true that I can not compete with your power, however I have one major advantage. I still control your friends." With this statement he vanished again and the group realized that he had taken Cristian and Seth with him. **_If you want your friends back then you have to return to me._** They could hear his voice ringing in their heads. **_I'm staked out in my backup lab, so come find me if you wish,_** and then the voice faded into nothingness taking any clues of its whereabouts with it. ****

I took a second for what had just happened to register, but once it did, the reality hit home hard.

"Seeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeth!" Yami called after he boyfriend, but of course there was no answer. "You can't leave me! Not now!" Yami seemed about ready to break down, and when Jamie put her arms around her friend and urged her to sit down on a rock, she did not argue.

"What should we do now?" Botan asked Yusuke. He answered almost immediately.

"Duh, we're going after them. I did not come all this way to fail now. Come on get everyone together. We're going hunting."


	16. Chapter 16

If you really need to read the disclaimer again, then refer back to the first ten chapters.

Ch.16

"We need to have a plan," Botan pointed out once the group had gotten over their initial shock of the recent disruption. Everyone had calmed down and was now seated in a shape that represented a circle on a flat, dry piece of the shale ground.

"Well, lets think of what we do know," Kurama reasoned. "He said it was a back up lab so it's safe to assume that he is not back at the original building."

"Right, that would defeat the point of a back up lab," Yusuke agreed.

"But if it's supposed to be a fall-back plan then it would not be too far away from the main building. Otherwise it would be unreachable in times of crises." Hiei put in. The rest of the humans were silent as they listened, feeling completely useless in this conversation sense they had no idea what was going on.

"My guess is that the building is located out side of this current protected boundary, but in a separate one close by," Kurama concluded.

"Alright but how dose speculating about its location help us out," Kuwabara asked.

"Easy," the fox answered. "First we get out of this area. The barrier on it stops us from sensing anything outside of it. Once out it should be relatively easy to pinpoint the other location. A barrier of this magnitude lets off a lot of energy, so there should be no problem," and so it was decided. The group headed strait for the edge of the protected land. It would be another long journey, probably falling just short of two days.

The trip was surprisingly quiet, up to the point where they made camp. The Reiki Tantei would have preferred to charge ahead for a few more hours but they had the normal human endurance of their companions to consider. They were currently located in another forest. This one was not nearly as dark or suppressing as Vaala's, rather it was open with little underbrush and great large trees. The night's atmosphere penetrated it easily, but the canopy above allowed for only brief glances of the Demon World's starless sky, give the place an ironic feeling of security and calm. Once they had secured a place to spend the night however the humans found that the best way to calm their frayed nerves was to socialize.

"If we get out of this alive it's going to be an awesome story."

"I have to admit that this more exciting than everyday life."

"Yeah, but there is such a thing as too much excitement, and I for one have reached my limit."

"I guess I have to agree with you." However all the mind distracting conversation could not keep the depressing thoughts of their situation out of their heads and the cheery out look on it all was doing nothing to console the distresses Yami.

"Why did Seth have to be taken," she wined.

"Because he's a coward," Jamie answered.

"What do you mean," Jordan asked. The three girls were grouped together, a bit further away from everyone else, and indulging in a more private conversation.

"Think about it. The only reason he took Seth and Cristian is because they have no power to fight back with," Jamie explained. "My guess is that that was their original purpose to begin with. They were a security just in case we managed to get away." The other two girls nodded in agreement.

"I guess it won't help to get upset about it," Yami sighed. Jamie smiled, she was proud of her friend for being so strong when on the inside she knew she was hurting.

"That's right. Just focus on the fact that we're going to save him," Jamie comforted. Yami nodded and gave a smile to the other girl.

"Now to focus on the problem at hand," Yami stated. Jamie cocked her head.

"What problem?" she asked.

"The fox problem," Yami smirked. **_Fox problem?_** Little did the girls know that their entire conversation was being overheard by said fox. "If there is any time to act it's now," Yami continued. Before Jamie could comment on how exactly this was **_not_** the moment to act, their conversation was interrupted.

"I guess I'm just invisible," Jordan blurted out. "Why do I even bother existing?" The girl was not really depressed or emo, but she had a bad habit of speaking as though she were.

"Not that again," both Jamie and Yami exasperated. "Look Jordan you really need to stop with the whole 'woe is me' attitude," Jamie continued solo. The blind girl didn't realize it but such statements really hit home and she knew it did the same for Yami.

"What's it matter to you. It's not like you ever pay attention to me anyway," Jordan spat.

"Look Jordan!" Apparently Yami's already thin reserve had worn through. "Once you experience some true pain you can justly make such remarks, but until then you're just being self centered." As expected, Jordan looked as though she had been slapped in the face, which she practically had, and responded with just as expected anger.

"Well what about her," Jordan pointed accusingly at Jamie. "As far as I know her life has been as pain free as mine and you don't go criticizing her, when in truth she has no more reason than I do!" Yami was horrified and almost afraid to look at the accused girl for she knew that statement had hurt. However once she did look at her friend her horror grew. The girl had gone blank. In all their years of friendship Yami had learned that Jamie did not express much emotion openly, but now she looked almost like a doll, with dulled expressionless eyes that were painful just to look at. Yeah, that statement had defiantly hurt, but then the girl smiled. An obviously fake façade of cheerfulness that was even more heart wrenching than the dead expression she'd worn only moments beforehand.

"Sorry, but it's been a long day and I'm tired. So if you don't mind I think I'd prefer to be alone for right now," and she stood up and walked away without another word. Just before she stepped out of hearing range she heard Yami round on Jordan before she stepped around a cluster of trees and their voiced were cut off.

She found her self in a beautiful secluded little place, not to far away from the others, with a small lake, trees all around it, cutting it off from the world, and plenty of large patches of moss creating comfortable places to sit. Even in her current emotional state the beauty was not lost on her, and the atmosphere of night just increased its beauty. She sighed and took a seat on one of the patches of moss, facing the lake, with her back braced against a tree.

She's right, her mind accused. I have no excuse to be depressed. She felt so angry with herself she wanted to scream. But mostly she just felt lost. The emotions she had been suppressing for so many years were starting to press down on her, she had no reason. I'm just being selfish, she thought. At this point she would have cried, had she been able to, but it had been such an extended period of time sense she had last cried that she had long sense forgotten how.

Kurama watched the girl walk off, he'd heard the whole thing, and he needed to talk to the girl more that ever after Korran had brought an interesting fact about her into the light. But after secretly watching that seen he found that he really just wanted to reach out to her. Her two friends had gotten into a heated argument and neither looked to be in the condition to give comfort. So, unnoticed by anyone, he slipped away to follow her.

He found her almost immediately. She was barely fifty feet from the group and in beautifully secluded section of the woods. Now that he was here and made up the decision to talk to her, he found himself more interested in just observing. Even in his current location he could see her mind was in turmoil. He was at the edge of the clearing, parallel with her about fifteen feet away, standing behind a tree and a large leafy bush. He could tell she had hit the breaking point and normally any human would have broken down to crying by now but she obviously was not. Well, he wasn't going to get anything accomplished by standing here, although now he was stuck with the problem with how to approach her. It was a delicate situation, and he was at a loss for what to do. After a moment of debating his mind decided it was best to just be natural with her, but to be as subtle and soft as possible. He stepped out of hiding and walked towards her, although she did not notice him, to wrapped up in her own thoughts. He stopped abut five feet away from her before he spoke.

"Well," she looked up at who had spoken. **_ Impressive, she didn't spook_**, his mind absently noted. She just continued to stare at him with a mixture of slight shock, but mostly confusion. "Sorry, I couldn't help but over hear your earlier conversation," he explained as he smiled gently at her. She nodded, so he took it that she had accepted his explanation and he was free to do as he wished. He sat down next to her, with her eyes never leaving him, and returned her gaze. He really did not know what to do, so he spoke the truth. "I'm really not good in these situations so I guess I'll just give you freedom to speak as you wish." All the shock and hidden pain had left her eyes now leaving only bewilderment as she cocked her head and double blinked. **_Hm, cute_** he thought and then his mind did a double take. **_Where did that thought come from? _**

"I don't mean to sound rude," she spoke up after a moment. "And it's not that I mind, but why are you here?" Well, at least that was one question he had an answer to.

"I've actually been meaning to speak with you for a while but after your friend's little show I had more of an incentive." He hadn't realized that her confusion could get any higher but apparently it could, for it did.

"Speak to me about what?"

"To make it short, two basic things," he answered her. "One, to sort out my own thoughts, and also there is what Korran said."

"Um…" she hesitated as her brain mulled over this information. She didn't want to think what the possibilities of "to sort out my own thoughts" meant so she stuck with the other half of his statement. "What did he mean by that, and what connection do I have to it?"

Kurama couldn't help but be amused by her constant confusion. "It's a long story," he answered, and with her and with her prompting look he dove into the tale of Karron and his involvement with him.

Ten minuets latter, once the story had been finished; Jamie just stared at him in silence. "So," she spoke after a moment. "He thinks I'm the reincarnation of that girl." He just nodded, and to his surprise she half smiled.

"I guess I've heard worse lies. There is no way I was that girl in a past life. You'd think that would leave an impression, even in a different life." She was looking at him, with a half a smile on her face, waiting for him to comment on what an idiotic idea it had been, but the response she got was way off what she had been expecting.

"It would make sense." His voice wasn't a whisper but it was much softer than a normal speaking tone. She was once again thrown into a state of confusion, and although she didn't ask the question, he could tell she wanted an explanation to his words. "It would explain why you are in so much pain." His statement had obviously brought up the emotions she had been repressing and had brought up his hand to stroke her cheek. He didn't really know what he was doing, or why his was doing it, but it felt right so he went with it.

"I'm not…" but her protest faded off, she could not finish the statement. It didn't matter. Her eyes told him otherwise anyway.

"It's a little too late to lie to yourself now," he spoke in a voice barely above a whisper. "I still remember that girl, and you're her carbon copy. I know you were her, and as for your earlier statement, I think it did leave an impression on you. In that life you suffered a great amount, but were never given the time to greave for yourself. So now that you have the calm life needed, that pain is coming out." During his entire speech he had gradually been leaning closer to her, pressing his point on her, and now he was to the point where she had to lean back a bit, he was a little to close for comfort.

She sniffed a bit before answering, in more than five years this was as close as she had ever come to crying. "I guess that would make sense." He visible and mentally relaxed, and removed his hand from her, she was starting to accept the idea he knew to be the truth. "As long as I can remember I've had this feeling of being victimized."

"Is that why you started repressing your feelings?" he asked out of the blue. She was thrown off by his question; his close proximity was already making her jittery.

"You noticed," she gasped. He just nodded his head. "Well, sort of, but not really," she answered as she shook her head. "It's really from getting sick of being emotional. I used to be the kind of person who was affected by everything and cried a lot, and people tended to walk all over me and bully me. I hated it."

"And are you happy with it now?" he asked. Finally he was getting to the heart of the problem.

"No," she answered. "I feel like I'm stuck." At his inquisitive stare she was compelled to continue. "I've forgotten how to show real emotions, like…" a statement from a book she had read popped into her head and she figured it was the best way to explain. "Like my lock is jammed and the key won't turn either way."

He wasn't sure why, but after she said that he got the most spontaneous idea. But although it should have seemed insane and ridiculous some told him that it was just right. "Then let me unlock you," he whispered before closing the space between them and bringing his lips down onto hers, and slipping his arms around her before she could even make a sound.

It was a brief kiss. He pulled away after only a moment, but stayed with his arms around her, his face only inches away from hers. "What?" and that was all thee was to the breathless question that passed her lips. He merely gave a small shrug in answer.

"I really don't know. I told you I needed to sort out my own thoughts, but I never guessed it would lead to this." He gave a small smile, truly happy with the way things turned out, but he noticed that the girl in his arms was still in turmoil. "What's wrong?" he asked after he noticed that she was struggling.

"I never thought…" she trailed off again.

"Never thought what?" he urged. She looked strait at him and smiled.

"It's a long story," and so she told a tale of her own, about how, when she was eleven, she had fallen in love with an anime character and how that love had stayed with her in all the years leading up to this moment. She described how happy she had been to see he was real, which explained the way she had been looking at him on the field, and how sense then she had been hoping he would notice her although she couldn't bring her self to speak to him. At the end of it all she looked strait into his eyes and said probably the most brazen thing she had ever said. "Kurama, I love you." Once she had put it into words he finally understood the feelings he hadn't been able to comprehend. He had never truly loved anyone so the experience was completely new to him, but he knew one thing. He had fallen in love with the girl in front of him and there was only one thing he could do.

"Well," he leaned in so that his lips were brushing against hers. "Then I guess that makes two of us," and the pressed in to claim her mouth for a second time. Although this time he went slowly. Absently he noticed that her lips were rather small, something he had noticed from the beginning, but that they seemed to fit his mouth perfectly. This time he got a response from her and when his tongue pushed against her mouth she gladly allowed him access.

She gasped when the hot invader slithered into her mouth but quickly indulged in the sensation and that the pleasure was increased when she competed with her own. Their kiss had reached a different level. With both pushing to attempt to devour the other they were managing to reach new heights. Without realizing it tears started to trickle from her eyes and he reached up to brush them away. He had done as he had said. He had unlocked her. It felt as though all the emotions she had hidden until then were all rushing out and all the pain she had built up was washed away. She was complete. What she didn't realize was that her new lover was experiencing almost the exact same thing. He had finally found what he didn't even know that he had been longing for.

Eventually, as all things must, their moment came to an end, although they did not part. Instead, he leaned against a tree and she curled up in his arms, wrapping her own around him. They feel asleep like that. Both surrounded by their new found joy.

87


	17. Chapter 17

If you really need to read the disclaimer again, then refer back to the first ten chapters.

Ch.17

The pair woke up to see, first, weak patches of sunlight filtering through the tree tops and second, the person they had spent the entire night with.

"Morning," Jamie smiled up at him.

"Morning" he answered. The night before, Kurama had been in such a daze that he had not even noticed the small details that were now obviously apparent. The light brown hair that had previously been tickling him under his chin was surprisingly soft, and her long bangs covered her eyes so that he had to brush them away in order to see them. Once he managed to get a good look at her eyes, which had always appeared black from a distance, he noticed were actually a very dark shade of brown.

It was these small details that Kurama held most precious, but hopefully he would have the rest of eternity to discover them.

"Hey, Kurama, Jamie, are you guys out there!" a voice that sounded like Yusuke's shouted.

"Looks like they are looking for us," Kurama told her. She gave a smiling nod in answer before standing up with him quickly following her. When the two of them returned to the group together Jamie had to suppress the urge to laugh at the looks they were receiving.

"Soooo, what exactly happened last night," Yusuke asked his partner once the initial shock had worn off.

"Hm, nothing," the fox answered as he slipped an arm around his new lover. To the insightful the action told them everything; to the stupid the indication went right passed them. Though it's not like either of the people in question cared what the others thought.

"Hey," Mike interrupted. "Before we continue this hero business, you wouldn't happen to have any food on you would you?" Seeing as how the Reiki Tantei could not let their charges go unfed, Kurama quickly grew a few fruit bearing trees to supply a sufficient breakfast. Once he had finished, Kurama had been planning to return to his place next to his lover, but before he could say anything she was whisked away by her friends. This left him a bit uneasy, he was feeling overly possessive at the moment, but he decided not to make anything of it. Besides, if all went well, they would have plenty of time to spend together.

"Alright spill, what happened," Jordan pried once they were a safe distance away from everyone else. An entire group consisting of Jessica, Erika, Stephanie, Yami, and Jordan were all dying to know exactly what had gone on between there young friend and the fox.

"Yes, do tell," Jessica emphasized.

"Well…um," Jamie hesitated. How much should she tell them?

"You have to tell us," Yami pushed. "What did you two do all night?" In a moment of clarity it became obvious to Jamie what her friends really wanted to know.

"Nothing of what you're thinking," she answered with a fake act of disgust. "To make it simple he came to comfort me, and…" she hesitated again. How was she supposed to explain this? After a moment of thought and her friends urging she cautiously continued with the explanation. "Apparently he had some mixed feelings for me sense he saw me on the field when we got kidnapped. After talking to me last night, and that's all we did, he realized that he loved me." Yes, she knew it was a lame explanation and it left out the best part, but that was all she felt ready to tell them. It only took a few more questions for the others to figure out that she was not going to go into anymore detail and they returned to the others.

When his lover came back Kurama simply gave her a questioning stare.

"They were curious," she answered the unspoken question. Then, just to clarify, she added "I didn't tell them much." Kurama acknowledged her explanation with a nod and a warm gaze and handed her one of the freshly grown apples.

Eventually they continued on their usual hike. Although this time the fox was sticking rather close to his lover. The love between them was brand new and they were still experiencing the clingy, needy feeling of newly inspired passion.

As predicted, the group reached their destination that same day. They were now currently standing on the outside edge of the barrier and trying to decide which way to go next.

"Ok Mr. Sensitive, this one's all you." Yusuke rounded on Kuwabara. "Where do we go from here?" Without argument Kuwabara reached out his senses and almost instantly located an identical, yet smaller energy source as the one they had just left.

"That way," he indicated somewhere off to the left. "About a three hour journey."

"Well let's get going," Yusuke commanded. "I don't know about any of you but I'm really getting sick of this mission." With a whole hearted agreement the group continued their trek in the direction indicated. The trip was surprisingly boring. No one was saying much of anything and they were currently traveling through a rocky waist land so the view was not very entertaining either.

"Well, this looks interesting," Hiei smirked. The group had been nearing their destination and had reached the edge of a cliff to come across a rather disheartening seen. In the basin below them was what looked to be a copy of the army they had previously fought.

"Aaaaaaaaugh!" Yusuke exclaimed in frustration. "We don't have time for this." With everyone looking at the obstacle in dismay or calculating just how long this would take, no one noticed Travis's intense stare at the opposing demons.

"I think I can help," he spoke up, startling everyone into silence.

"Oh yeah, and what can you do?" Kuwabara countered.

"Oh they don't know do they," Jessica exclaimed. Every member of the Reiki Tantei gave the girl an inquisitive look, although it was Aryn who explained.

"What do you think that demon was doing to us the whole time we were in his possession, treating us to a bed and breakfast, I think not." After hearing this Yusuke turned his attention back to Travis.

"Alright, do what you can." Once given consent Travis set to work focusing his energy. Reaching out he latched onto every one of the demons, well he really did not know what it was he was holding on to. Energy, soul, whatever it was that made them up. Once he had a secure hold on every one of them he twisted and dragged at whatever could find. A painful cry went up from the hoard of demons before they all fell to the ground, not dead, just unconscious. Travis slipped his energy from his still victims and returned to his normal state of mind.

"Well, there you go," he commented, the entire Reiki Tantei just stared at results of the boys power.

"Wow," was about all Yusuke could say.

"Hn," Kurama assented. He, along with Hiei, had been the first to overcome their shock. "I see Korran truly did create some powerful beings."

"Hn," Hiei wordlessly agreed before carefully starting his way down the steep cliff. He was not about to over the boy's, and the rest of his friend's, power. Not as long as the humans were on their side. If any of them did switch over and try to oppose them, then he would worry about it. Until then it was just needless stress. The rest of the group decided to follow the little fire demon's example and started their way down. Everyone except Kurama that is who hung back until he was standing next to his lover behind everyone else. Once everyone else had some distance away from them he grabbed her arm and turned her to look at him.

"Korran," he pressed "what did he do to you?"

"You know," she answered after a moment of thought "I'm not really sure." Kurama released her but she didn't move away from him. He was not going to press. This had to be hard to adjust to and being interrogated would only make things more stressful. As curious as he was he was about the human's new abilities he would not press and would just to see for himself. "I think we should catch up with the others," he voice broke him out of his thoughts.

"Yes, we should," he agreed and the two headed off to do just that.

After carefully picking there way across the body filled valley and scaling up the other side, the group found themselves staring at a large grey metal building. That was it, no other structures in sight.

"So, I guess this is the place," Yusuke said, although the comment was not necessary.

"Yeah," Kuwabara agreed with him. He tried the door and as expected found it locked. "Well it looks like the King of Thieves can help us out on this one." However before Kurama could act Aryn stepped forward.

"If you don't mind I'd like to try. Travis isn't the only one with powers around here."

"By all means," the fox offered. She did not need to be told twice. In one smooth motion she jumped to a near by window sill and one more leap landed her safely on top of the building. She disappeared and barely a minuet latter she reappeared opening the entrance for them.

"Um…what's your power again?" Yusuke asked, quite befuddled. Her stunt and the speed at which she had accomplished it could rival Youko.

"Dormant Cat Demon," she answered him with a grin. "Or it was until Korran tampered."

"Oh…um…" Yusuke trailed off, not quite sure what to say, although the awkwardness did not stop them from taking advantage of the open door.

Upon entering it was quite obvious that this lab was much different from the last one. It was eerily quiet, and instead of the sterile look of white it felt more like a dungeon with cold metal walls and stone floor.

"Where do we go from here?" Botan asked the silence.

"Our friends are behind a large door at the end of the hall," Sam answered her seeing as how the silence was not responding.

"And how do you know that?" Yusuke asked her. These kids were really starting to confuse the hell out of him. He hated it when he didn't know something and others did and these teens were riddled with one enigma after another.

"I can feel their fear from here," she responded with a sheepish blush of embarrassment. Yusuke stared at her, baffled.

"She's an Empath," Yami offered, before turning her attention to the girl in question. "Can you do anything to comfort them?" Sam merely nodded in answer before focusing her energy on the two scared souls and trying to surround them with as much peace and tranquility as possible.

It was not long before they reached the end of the hallway and discovered themselves stuck behind a large metal door that covered the entire expanse of the hallway.

"Looks like we'll need Youko's skill after all," Yusuke mused. "Unless Cat Woman has a few more tricks up her sleeve."

"It's a solid wall," Aryn countered. "I can't dissolve through it or anything."

"It was just a joke," Yusuke reassured with his hands up in an open gesture to show that he meant no harm. "Kurama…" Even without finishing the question Kurama knew what Yusuke was trying to ask. There was a complex lock system on the door but by simply growing a small vine through the paneling he should be able to activate it. He could have, anyway, if he had been able to touch the door. When his hand came within an inch of the door there was a crackling sound and Kurama jerked back a hand that now donned reddened fingertips.

"It's warded," he needlessly explained. "Odds are none of us can touch it."

"Then how are we supposed to get in," Yusuke half shouted half groaned. This mission was going from bad to worse with every passing minuet.

"With a key," a voice behind them answered. The voice was reveled to belong to a woman with blond hair. The Reiki Tantei had never seen the woman before but the others instantly recognized her as Shaylan. To help with the image, Erik was standing right next to her. "We can open that door."

"And who the hell are you," Yusuke shot a bit too harshly, his nerves already on edge.

"They're two of Korran's assistants. They helped with the experiments," Erika offered. Of course that did not make Yusuke trust them anymore. However before he could voice his opinion he was cut off by Erik starting up a quarrel with his partner.

"Shaylan, what are you doing? You are not honestly going to help them?" Erik, by nature, had a weak demeanor, but he was trying to put all he authority he had into his voice wile at the same time pleading her to tell him his assumption was wrong.

"What if I am?" she asked looking down at him. In reality he was only about two inches shorter than her but she still tended to tower over him.

"You can't," he countered. "HE will be furious if we help them. And you know what he is capable of doing to us." She nodded her head in agreement.

"I know, but you've seen what he has done to those kids I can't sit idly by and let this continue. Not when there is something, anything, I can do to help." When the man in front of her hesitated to respond she continued. "We've talked of one day stepping up to Korran; well why not now, when it will do some good." The sheer conviction in her eyes told him that she was not about to back down so he gave in, as he always seemed to do when it came to her.

"Alright, if you're so determined then I might as well go along," he said with a shrug. Shaylan's sharp eyes sparkled with a light that none of the teens had ever seen after hearing her partners answer.

"Hold on," Hiei spoke up. "We still didn't say we would trust you."

"You know what Hiei, I think we can trust 'em," Yusuke said with a smile. After hearing the woman's heartfelt plea he truly did feel that the two of them could be trusted. The two of them seemed to hate Korran almost as they did. "So you can get us into this room?" Both Shaylan and Erik nodded in agreement. The woman, who was the one in possession of the key needed, walked over to the door, but just as she was about to put the odd trinket onto the even odder slit it was supposed to fit she halted and turned back to the group.

"I fit wouldn't be too much trouble," she began "could we come with you when you leave. At Yusuke's consent she gave a small smile and continued to her previous task. There was an assuring click sound before the doors slowly began to open. Shaylan quickly scurried to the back of the group before the room was revealed. Once it was the sight that met their eyes appalled them.

"Oh, my god," Yami whispered, thought the words were heard only by herself.

93


	18. Chapter 18

If you really need to read the disclaimer again, then refer back to the first ten chapters.

Ch.18

"SEEEEEEEEEETH!" Yami cried at the sight of her boyfriend. Both he and Christian were chained to the far wall. The tattered remains of their close clung to their body, but it did nothing to hide the bloody injuries that littered their bodies. Both of them seemed to be unconscious.

"Wha…how could…why" Jamie was at a loss for what to say, as was everyone else as the scene before them burned into their eyes.

"Well, I figured if you were going to come here to save them then I should give you some more incentive. Nothing brings out power like anger." Korran answered from his spot lounging in the corner. "And it seems to have brought out some traitors too." Shaylan and Erik took a step back as his eyes locked directly on to them. "Not that I'm surprised," he laughed. "I figured you would eventually try to rebel against me, and if these kids escaped it would do nothing but encourage you."

"It's high time we refused to bend to your whim," Erik softly spoke.

"But none of that matters to me right now." He sighed. "I'll deal with the traitors once everything else is settled."

Yusuke was at his limit of patients with this demon. "I've had just about enough of your shit," he yelled before charging. He slammed into Korran pinned the demon to the wall by his throat.

"I don't think you want to hurt me," Korran gasped between his teeth.

"Well I think I do," Yusuke spat.

"No," Korran struggled around his restricted windpipe. Using one of his hands he reached into a pocket and pulled out a remote. Mike had been right; he had had more than one. "Unless you really want me to kill those two." Yusuke hesitated and slackened his grip. After coughing a couple of times to clear his abused throat Korran continued.

"I literally hold those two's lives in my hand. Unless you want them to die then release me." Yusuke grudgingly did as he was instructed. However as he stepped away from the other man he failed to see Korran's hand flinch until it was too late to react. The end of the remote turned into something of a phasor except this seemed to lock onto spirit energy and electrify it, similar to the pulses in the collars he had used to keep the humans in line, except it was at a much higher voltage. Yusuke could not help it, he screamed as the electric waves pulsed through him. At the same time that Korran slammed the phasor-remote into Yusuke's side, a couple of humanoid looking robots appeared at the demon's side. Korran did not let up until Yusuke was on his knees.

"Now that he's been taken care of, capture the rest of them." The last part of Korran's statement was meant as a command to the robots at his side, but they did not respond. "What's wrong I gave you an order!" he shouted. At this the robots did move, not towards the group as they had been instructed but instead rounded on him, two of them each grabbing one of his arms and holding him in place. "What the-," but it did not take long for him to figure out what had happened. "You!" his eyes locked right on Jessica. The whole group turned to the girl.

"Jessica?"

"You know, those robots have a mind set pretty close to the ones you were using to train me," she answered. "It took almost no effort to lock on and control them." Korran was shocked. He had not realized that she had become so versatile with her power. To improvise and adapt her power to a situation that she had not been exposed to was beyond where he had speculated her to be. This could turn out badly if he had miscalculated on every one.

"And this is where I step in," Jordan stated. She moved so that she was standing next to the restrained demon and placed a hand over his heart before turning to the rest of her friends. "How far should I go?" she asked.

"Make him so weak that he can barely breathe," Stephanie responded in a cheery voice. She got nothing but whole hearted consents from the rest of the group. Well, except the Reiki Tantei who really had no idea what any of them meant.

"You want to explain what you all are talking about?" Yusuke asked the nearest person next to him, Erika.

"Well, let see, how should I put this? Jessica has the power to manipulate minds so at the moment she has control aver Korran's robot minions sense, in essence, they have minds." At this point it was mandatory for Erika to take a breath before continuing. Jordan has the energy to gather energy from her opponents, or in other words suck it out of other people and store it within herself. I'm assuming that with training she could eventually learn to give that energy to others, but at the moment she can't do that." Yusuke, and the rest of the Reiki Tantei had, up till this point been listening to her explanation in awe, and were only now remembering that it was polite to close their mouths.

"Your powers are just getting more and more impressive!" Botan exclaimed.

"I agree," Yusuke nodded. "I have to see I'd like to the capabilities of the rest of you."

"Yes, so would I," Kurama agreed half heartedly as he cast a worried glance at his lover.

"I'm finished!" Jordan called out, snapping the group out of their conversation. They looked to see one sorry sight huddled on the ground. The robots had released Korran and the demon was crumpled on the ground, and just as she had been instructed, even the simple task of breathing seemed a strenuous task.

"It definitely serves him right," Mike commented in a surprisingly quiet voice.

"Yes," Jordan agreed with a smile on her face. She had her back turned to her previous victim so she did not notice him move until he was upon her. Korran lunged to wrap one hand around her throat and the other to pin her hands behind her back.

"What?" Jordan gasped. "You shouldn't even be able to move." A quiet, menacing laugh issued from Korans throat that turned them selves into words.

"You forget I created you, which means I have some amount of immunity to your powers. It's true you did weaken me, but as you can see, it did not have quite the intended response. I can recover from any injury you inflict on me rather quickly." Once his monologue was finished Korran wasted no time to, out of seemingly nowhere, produce a threatening looking syringe and inject it into the girl's neck. Jordan immediately crumpled, she had fainted dead away. Once she landed on the floor Korran kicked her like a soccer ball and sent her skidding across the floor to come to a halt at her friends' feet.

"Jordan!" they coursed in unison.

"Don't even try to wake her up," Korran sneered as he watched one of the girls shake her. "She won't be waking up for a good five hours."

"Bastard!" Mike shouted as he stood up.

"Aw, your mad," Korran cooed. "Lets bring in something to keep you occupied," and at his command an entire horde of low class demons appeared in the room. Just like the seen at the field and latter in the valley.

"Doesn't this guy have any new ideas," Yusuke wined. He was getting sick of being faced by the same problem. "Travis, can you take care of them?" Yusuke asked the boy.

"There's no need," Mike growled as his body began to glow. When the light vanished he was left standing there only this time with blue tipped spikes, and demon markings. "This guy has pissed me off way too much. I'll take care of this," and in a blur that looked strangely like the Tasmanian Devil, Mike took off into the thick of the demons, tearing into them like they were paper.

"Um…" was as far as Yusuke managed to get in his question while vaguely motioning in Mike's direction.

"Berserker," Sam answered simply.

"Oh," Yusuke breathed before going back to watching Mike's performance. In the short time it had taken him to ask a question Mike had decimated more than two thirds of the opposing demons.

"And that's that," Mike exclaimed a moment latter, when all of his enemies were destroyed. "Thank god for misguided anger. 'Cause it kicks ass!" He was getting a little too excited about such a small victory.

"Hey Mike," Travis called. "Watch out, your head is swelling."

"Shut up!" Mike shot back. "You just hate me 'cause I'm beautiful," he swooned with an over exaggerated hair flip.

"Yeah Mike, the blue really brings out your eyes," Aryn called.

"Hn?" Mike looked down at himself and noticed the demon marking. "Oh," he rubbed his head sheepishly as he returned to the group. "Thought I'd start a new fashion statement."

"Yeah, yeah Mike," Elizabeth scoffed. "Why don't you put that spiky head of yours to use and help us find a way to rescue those two?"

"You still believe you can save your friends," Korran called. In the chaos of Mike's battle, the demon had slunk to the safest, and furthest away, spot on the opposite wall. Yet still his banter was threatening. "You forget that in the end I'm still your master."

He was panicked. No, not panicked, concerned. He hadn't realized the full extent to which his subjects had developed. By his calculations there bodies should still be under the stress of trying to adapt to their new power. For some reason they seemed to have completely, physically accepted it, and there was no way they could have managed to accomplish that so quickly. At this point there minds should almost have shut down with the stress of trying to cope. So what was giving them so much power, so much…confidence. That was it that was the answer to the question.

"Oh, I see we're a bunch of sneaky little rats, aren't we Sam. I will say that I'm impresses." Through his whole speech Korran had kept his eyes on the ground. Now he raised them to savor the baffled expressions of the group before him. All except Sam that is.

"I had to do something," she shrugged. At this point it did not seem physically possible for the rest of the groups confusion to get any worse, and sense no answers were forthcoming it was driving Yusuke crazy.

"Would someone please tell me what is going on! I've spent most of this mission wondering around blindly and I can't take it anymore! I think we all deserve some answers here!" Yusuke shouted, the confusion finally getting to him.

Korran sighed before giving the boy an answer. "Why must the thrill of suspension always be ruined? Alright here's the deal. By my calculations all of you should have collapsed by now from the strain on your bodies from trying to adapt to your new powers. However as you can see that is not the case. At first this baffled me, but I seem to have finally figured out this annoying little quirk. This girl," he pointed to Sam, "Has been feeding you all a constant flow of confidence and power. You're lucky that her own powers are not as much of a strain on her or she would have fallen unconscious a long time ago."

"Is what he's saying the truth?" Erika asked Sam. The girl nodded in response.

"Like I said, I had to do something. I could feel you all getting weaker and weaker so I decided to try and do something about it. Apparently it worked."

"Right and what do you do?" Kuwabara asked in his regular rude strait to the point manor.

"I'm an Empath," she smiled at him.

"Wow those are rare," Botan gasped.

"Um could we stick to the problem at hand? Like the crazy demon scientist that could, possible kill us," Yusuke growled, although there was no menace in his voice.

"Yes, let's do stick to the problem at hand." The small laugh at the end of his sentence went unnoticed by all but himself. In the short time that the conversation had taken place Korran had thought up the best plan to get his test subjects back. True it was a bit extreme, but as they say, desperate times call for desperate measures.

Relying once more on his trusty remote Korran called numerous cylinders of what looked like gold glowing light to drop from the ceiling. They feel strategically so that each one captured one person, separating that person from the others. Each of them was captured this way until all were isolated. All except Jordan, that is. The girl's form stayed safe in its slouched over position by the wall right where she had been placed.

"The only way I can overcome you is individually it seems," Korran mused to himself. A keyboard appeared literally out of nowhere, seeming to form out of the wall, off to Korran's right and he walked to over to it to begin furiously typing on it. Whatever it was that he was preparing to do, only one thing was certain. It would not be good for any of them.

**_What can I do?_** Yami thought. **_There must be something. _**As she peered up at the dull gray ceiling above her the glimmer of a brilliant plan started to form. This left her with two options. Either wait and plan it out more, or act now and hope it works. **_Well, planning has never really been my strong point _**she thought as she pointed her index finger straight up.

No one felt the power charge, not even Korran, but the defining crash defiantly caught everyone's attention. Everyone looked towards the source of the sound just in time to see a mountain of grey stone topple on top of Yami. All of them were too shocked to speak.

**_She can't…she can't be…she just can't_**, Jamie's mind sputtered around incoherently until movement amongst the rubble caught her eye. Yami was managing to claw her way to the top of the pile. It took her a few moments to successfully remove herself, but once she did she sat top of the rubble like king of the mountain and started laughing.

"I knew something was going to go wrong," she yelled.

"You want to explain what just happened?" Aryn called to her.

"A half assed job at trying to escape," Yami answered. "Although it apparently wasn't all in vain," she added after looking up at the well sized hole in the ceiling. There was, unmistakably a two square foot gap between the edge of the barrier and the ceiling, just enough room for a person to squeeze through. "Now the question is how the hell do I get up there?"

There was a whooshing sound as something suddenly came careening from the sky. Yami managed to scurry out of the way just as it slammed into the ground and all could see a large pie sitting on the uneven ground.

"Sorry," Elizabeth called. "I don't really have that much control over it." Yami stared at the pie for a moment before looking back at her friend.

"Well don't stop. If you can get me out of here then keep going." Elizabeth nodded before her eyes glazed over. Another pie fell from no where followed by another and another. They kept coming; Yami was pushed to the far side of her enclosure as the pastries stacked themselves into a form that somewhat resembled a staircase. Pie after pie was stacked on top of each other leading all the way up to the opening at the top. "Umm…, that doesn't look all too safe." Yami commented as she eyed the escape rout wearily.

"Don't worry, it will work," Elizabeth coaxed. So, putting all faith in her friends abilities Yami began to climb. It was odd, to say the least. The pies under her feet jostled and shifted with each step, and they were squishy. Putting your foot through a pie is not a pleasant experience and this situation was no exception. She managed to scramble her way to the top but there she hit a problem. There was no way down from the top. The stack behind her started to wiggle and just as they had fallen into place they began to soar again and restack themselves on the other side of the barrier. Yami just barely managed to keep herself up by balancing on the top edge of the barrier and hold onto the crumbling remains of the ceiling that was in reach. Once there was a stable pile in front of her she began her decent in the same fashion as she had ascended. It only took a few more moments for her pie encrusted feet to be placed firmly on the ground.

"I can't believe that worked," Yami breathed in relief.

"I swear!" Yusuke shouted, gaining everyone's attention. "If I have to ask someone what's going on one more time I'm seriously going to kill myself."

Yami turned to him with sparkling eyes. "Ok, here I'll show you." She aimed her pointer finger at the top of Travis' enclosure. "Travis, duck and cover," she yelled. He did so and she fired. As expected the ceiling exploded and crumbled leaving a gap for escape. Travis, like Yami climbed out of the rubble unharmed.

"Whoa, she's got my spirit gun!" Yusuke exclaimed. Yami turned back to face him and blew on the top of her finger like the corny move in an old cowboy film.

"Actually it's Ki," she corrected.

"Umm…." Yusuke sweatdropped. "Riiiight."

"It's the same basic concept as the spirit gun," Kurama explained. "Only it's weaker and more versatile."

"Alright well that explains one," Kuwabara called. "What about the other one."

"Uhhh…." The whole group of humans chorused.

"That one's rather hard to explain," Sam put in.

"I guess the best way to explain it is that I control the improbable," Elizabeth said. She figured she would need to go into a more detailed explanation from the incomprehensive looks she was receiving from the Reiki Tantei. "Well, the more unlikely something is to happen the easier I can make it happen. Like the pie. It's almost impossible for something like that to occur, so it was really easy for me."

Yusuke gawked at her. "You mean you can make anything happen. That can come in handy."

"Well yeah, but because it's random I don't really have much control over it. I can give basic commands like make an escape route, but I can't really tell what acctualy is going to ensue. It's actually kinda scary."

"But you can get us out of here right," Botan piped up. Elizabeth just nodded.

"Well, come on don't stop now," Mike called. So things continued in the same fashion. One by one Yami shot down the ceiling above the barriers, by some miracle no one was hurt, and Elizabeth would give them a way out. Travis was the next one out. He was given a mountain of rubber ducks to scale. It was a rather noise escape sense every time he stepped on a duck it squeaked. Jamie was given a tower of cheese, and made her way to the top by scampering through them like a maze.

"I feel like a mouse," she called as she waited at the top for the cheese to form on the other side. Once it was formed she slid down the holes like a tube slide, landing safely on the ground. Aryn was in no need help from Elizabeth once she was given an opening, she could just jump through it, as could all of the Reiki Tantei except Kuwabara who was given a staircase of marshmallows to climb, and Botan flew through on her ore. Erika climbed over a bunch of lunch room tables stacked on top of each other and Stephanie was similar except they were lay-z-boy couches. Giant sized logos were formed into a stair for Sam, and Jessica was given a way out by, oddly enough, a flock of purple flamingoes; each one positioning its feathered body in just the right way so that Jessica could easily walk up them. At first she had been scared that she would hurt the birds by stepping on them but found them to actually be quite stable. Once at the top all she had to do was wait for the purple cloud of birds to soar over her and reform themselves for her decent. Once she was out all that was left were Kuwabara and Elizabeth herself.

"Come on Kuwabara, climb up," Yusuke called. The tall carrot top was faced with long wriggling vines creeping down the side of the barrier that held him as his way out. He did not trust the plant and eyed it warily.

"Are you sure about this," Kuwabara called back.

"Kurama is here, what could those plants do to you?" Yusuke responded.

As Kuwabara began his struggle up the wall of vines Kurama leaned over and whispered to Yusuke. "Maybe this wouldn't be a good time to mention that I have no control over those plants." Yusuke just smirked at the news.

"Yeah, I figured as much," he whispered in response but if it'll get him going then I'm willing to lie to him.

Once Kuwabara was safely on the outside Elizabeth focused on making her own escape rout. It only took a moment of concentration, but so far she was only able to create one thing at a time. She was eventually given a pile of Kudoneko-sama plushies to scale. After a brief moment of struggling and climbing she found herself safely outside with the others. As soon as enough people had been freed they had begun to work on getting Seth and Cristian down. By the time Elizabeth joined them the two unconscious victims had been freed and propped against the wall next to Jordan.

"So can we, like, wake them up or something?" Kuwabara asked.

"Yes," Kurama answered him after standing up from checking over the three. "There symptoms should be easy enough to cure." He placed a seen on the hard floor and it instantly began to bloom. The dense floor was too hard for the roots to penetrate so they just writhed around uselessly on the surface. Once the plant finished sprouting it looked like a tall green straw was sticking up from the ground with something like an exploded white and yellow tulip at its tip. Kurama plucked a rather large pit from the flower and crushed it in his hand before blowing it over the unconscious humans. No more than five minuets latter the three were standing and completely unharmed, if not a little groggy and confused.

"Hey, what happened to Korran?" Aryn asked once she knew her friends were ok. In all the confusion no one had noticed his disappearance until now.

"Oh, that bastard ran off at the sound of Yami's first explosion," Yusuke answered her. "I think he's running out of ticks. Now I don't know about you but this is all starting to get really tiring. What do you say we wrap this up?" The rest of the group whole heartedly agreed with him. Now that the whole group was back together they confidently made their way to the only other exit in the room.

103


	19. Chapter 19

If you really need to read the disclaimer again, then refer back to the first ten chapters.

Ch.19

In truth Korran had not run out of tricks, not just yet, he had one left. Well, in reality it was not his trick. This was something his brother had developed all those years ago. He finally came to the room he was looking for; a small testing room that was cleared at the moment. It was, like so many other rooms in his lab, white. Korran had always found the sterile look to be comfortable though it tended to put others on edge. After a moment of rummaging through the rooms lone cabinet he produced what he was looking for. One of his brother's last finished creations.

It was a drastic measure he knew, but it was the only ace he had left. As soon as he had heard the explosion he had retreated. In was only to easy to guess what had happened and Korran knew he was running out of options. His test subjects had grown far stronger then he had ever dared to dream, ever though they could not see it yet. The abilities themselves would probably take years to refine, but the initial strength was there and it was becoming too much for him to handle. Slowly he raised the needle to his through. There was a sharp prick as the needle pierced his skin and then, nothing. He did not feel anything before his vision split and he crumpled to the ground. He was not dead far he immediately picked himself up but he felt the change, felt it inside of him. It had worked and now he stood a chance to put things back how they should be.

"Damn there are a lot of hallways!" Yusuke shouted when the group turned the corner to come face to face with a hallway identical to the one they had just left. It was taking the group quite awhile to meander their way to where they sensed Korran to be sense they were preceding with caution. It was impossible to predict what the demon was going to through at them next. Erik and Shaylan had disappeared when the barriers had come down so they could not even ask them about Korran's plans.

"Erika," Stephanie whispered to her sister. "If it comes right down to it we're going to be useless in a fight." Botan, who was walking next to the girls could not help but overhear the girl's conversation.

"Why is that?" she asked them.

"Well," Stephanie hesitantly answered her. "Our powers don't really give us much to fight with."

"Yes they do," Erika objected.

"What exactly do you two do anyway?" Kuwabara asked. He like everyone else had, by now, caught on to the conversation.

"My sister and I have a very strong psychic connection," Erika answered. "This does give us abilities to fight with. We are stronger, faster and smarter than normal." Stephanie turned to her sister, confused.

"I've been meaning to ask how that works," she stated.

"As far as I can tell our connection allows us to rely on each others strengths and cover for each others weaknesses. Like two people fighting as one," Erika answered.

"Well I guess this covers what most of you can do," Yusuke commented once the conversation seemed to die down.

**_Actually all but one_** Kurama thought as he stared at his lover who was once again beside him. She was the only one they did not know about and it was burning inside him to know, he was worried. He could not help it.

In the time it took to have that short conversation they had reached the room that they believed to hold Korran. Without a moments hesitation the group entered the room, eager to get this over with and go home. The room was about half the size as the one they had just been in and this one was entirely white.

As they expected Korran was there, but something seemed wrong. He was just standing there, in the middle of the room, with his head hanging so that his hair was hanging in front of his face. When the group entered he looked up but his eyes looked wrong and there was no other way to explain it. It was like the image of his eyes was superimposed over its self.

"Ah, I see they have arrived," he told to not particularly anyone. "The great destroyers of my great plans." His body seemed to sway and leave an after image of its self behind only this image did not go away and instead stayed visible and solid. There were now four Korrans facing them where a moment ago there had only been one.

"What the fuck," Yusuke gasped. All three of the Korrans began to laugh in an eerie tone that rang through the room. He did nothing else, just laughed, but that was more than enough to put everyone on edge.

"It's seems this insane fight finally draws to an end," Hiei murmured.

"Yeah," Yusuke agreed. "One for each of us, winner take all, literally.

So they faced off, Kurama facing the Korran on the far left, Hiei the one next to Kurama, Kuwabara the Korran second on the right and Yusuke the far right. Everyone else stated huddled in a group far behind the squared off pairs, they had had more than enough of this demon and did not wish for any more. A tense silence filled the air, not even the breathing of all the bodies in the room could be heard over the deafening quiet; each person waiting for the move of another and not willing to make the first move themselves. One could almost hear the crash as a taut line broke and the hypnotically tense atmosphere shattered to the ground. Korran charged, all of him; each coming in with an identical manor but each getting an entirely different response. Kurama dodged his opponent with ease and waited to see what his next move would be. Hiei also dodged but moved so that he was standing to his opponents back, giving him the advantage. Yusuke blocked his opponent easily and landed a solid punch right in his gut. Kuwabara, in usual brash fashion, forwent all forms of blocking or dodging and instantly brought out his spirit sword, cutting off his opponents oncoming attack.

For the two that had actually hit their opponent they were shocked to find that it had absolutely no effect. Both Yusuke and Kuwabara had made solid direct contact and the hit surly would have finished off a weaker opponent, but neither of the Korrans looked fazed. In fact they weren't.

At this point the four Korrans behaved on their own accord, or at least differently from their comrades, no doubt a reaction to the different ways they were responded to. Kurama's Korran proceeded to attack the fox with a flurry of punches and kicks that were at such a rapid pace that Kurama was hard pressed to avoid them all. Hiei's Korran turned to spiritual attacks as it sent a huge energy blast in the direction of the little fire demon. It did not hit its mark but it left a fairly impressive fiery hole where it did hit. Kuwabara's Korran brushed his sword away as if it were a feather, and literally tackling the bay and ramming him all the way into the wall. Yusuke's Korran grabbed the fist that was lodged in his stomach and used it to hold the boy still as he slammed his own fist into his jaw. The punch had more power than expected and sent the spirit detective ground sliding.

Kurama's situation was getting more and more desperate as time wore on. He had not tried a counter attack because truthfully there was no opportunity to do so. It was taking all his concentration to simply keep from being hit. He saw it before it ensued. He failed to step fast enough and landed himself right in the way of Korran's oncoming fist. With little time to react he tried to move as best he could but the attack still hit home. He was thrown from his feet with the force of the blow and slid almost the entire way to the wall.

At almost the exact same time the rest of his comrades fell. One of the energy blasts that Korran had been using against Hiei turned in its path once it had missed it's target and aimed for a second try. It hit him it the back just as a second blast collided with him from the front. The was a moment of struggle but Hiei was quickly overcome and the resulting explosion sent Hiei flying, only for him to land unceremoniously and the ground mere feet to Kurama's right.

Kuwabara, after being slammed into a wall was not too hard to over come. After being pealed from aforementioned wall it only took a few more solid punches to leave him struggling on the ground.

Yusuke was the last to be defeated, although only by mere seconds. The initial hit to the jaw left him stunned just long enough for Korran to take the advantage. Grabbing the boys already abused head and slamming it into his knee left Yusuke on his knees which put his head at perfect kicking height. By the time Yusuke stopped face sliding he was over by the rest of his teammates.

It was horrible to watch. To see your saviors, your proverbial white knights get injured and abused is enough to put anyone over the edge. Needless to say the humans were having a hard time watching the scene before them.

**_Am I really so completely useless, _**Jamie wondered as she stared in horror at their fallen heroes. **_ What's worse is I'm going to lose Kurama, that…that just can't happen. Not now, not ever. I'm not completely useless, I do have abilities._** A plan was forming itself in her head that just might work, but it was going to need some help. For that she looked to Yami.****

"Hey Yami, I need you to help me," she told the girl next to her. It was not a question, simply a statement.

"Ok," Yami nodded. "What is it?"

"I need you to shoot me," she answered calmly. Yami just stared at her.

"You need me to what!" She could not have heard that right.

"I need you to shoot me," Jamie repeated. "There is no energy in this room; Korran must have stripped it or something, so I need you to provide me with something to work with. Shoot me with everything you have." Jamie spread her arms at this last statement completely presenting herself to attack. Yami just swallowed and nodded, hopping her friend knew what she was doing. Taking a few steeps back she aimed her index finger at Jamie and shot, putting everything into it. The blast, instead of making contact, stopped just in front of Jamie and she grasped the invisible energy in her hands. It began to glow a soft shade of gold as she kneaded it into the form she needed it to be. Mixing her own energy into it along with whatever scraps she could pull from the air around her it became tough enough for the job she needed of her creation.

The release of energy was beautiful. The energy blossomed from its center point in Jamie's grasp which she then quickly gathered control of it and formed it into a comforting gold veil that spread itself across the room, cutting Korran off from everyone else. It was a barrier and one that Korran could not break through though not for lack of trying. Punches, kicks, energy blasts, nothing worked to even dent the barrier. It slowly crept closer and closed in on the now helpless Korran. Once it was so close that that barrier was pressed against Korran's flesh, Jamie redistributed the energy. This time separating it and reforming it to create restraints around Korran's limbs, all of them on all four bodies, and pinned him to the ground. The Reiki Tantei did not hesitate to take advantage of the opportunity.

All four of them raised themselves from the ground and 'went for the kill.' Korran, who could see his executers as they came down on him, let forth a blood chilling scream of panic and pain just before the final blow was dealt. Kurama, using his Rosewhip which he summoned, neatly cut the head off one of the Korrans while Hiei went for the slightly messier job of dissecting another Korran's body into twenty-four minute pieces. Kuwabara went for the clean kill by sticking his sword through a Korrans through and Yusuke finished off the last Korran by punching a hole clean through his chest.

It was rather odd watching Korrans many bodies come back together into one being. He was broken, battered, and bruised. His chest was completely torn apart and his blood quickly flowed out of him, forming a red liquid halo around him.

"I'm sorry…brother," he whispered in a barely audible voice as his life drained away from him. "I tried to carry on your dream, now…I can…only hope I join you." With his dying words spoken Korran closed his eyes and drifted away, finally defeated.

With him dead the nightmare was over, as was the mission. Everyone could breathe a sigh of relief now that the chaos was over. The only problem looming in the future was how to return home.

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	20. Chapter 20

If you really need to read the disclaimer again, then refer back to the first ten chapters.

Ch.20

It took a moment for the group to comprehend what had just happened. Korran had finally been defeated, the revelation made Yusuke want to laugh.

"Dose somebody want to explain what just happened," Yusuke gasped as he tried to refrain from laughing sense it did not really seem like an appropriate thing at the time.

"Simple my ingenious detective," Hiei answered with his usual dark humor. "We just won."

"I mean before that," Yusuke snapped. "With that light and what not." Now that they were no longer being assaulted the four members of the Reiki Tantei were able to find the strength to stand. Their overall injuries were not that bad, they had had worse. Kuwabara was limping slightly and Yusuke had a slight concussion, Kurama had a pain in his chest from a few bruised ribs, and Hiei had a few burnt patches of skin, but over all they were not to bad off.

"Sorry," a small voice spoke from behind them. "I probably should have warned you first." They turned around to find Jamie to be the speaker. "I guess I just didn't think," she added sheepishly while she knocked herself on the head to emphasize the point. Kurama was almost immediately at her side his eyes filled with slight worry but mostly curiosity.

"That was you?" he asked her.

"Yes, I saw the whole thing," Botan joyously cut in. "Yami shot her but instead of being hit she grabbed on to the energy and used it to make that shield and the restraints. It was really impressive."

After listening to Botan's recreation of the events that had taken place Kurama was finding it hard not to gape as he was sure the rest of his teammates were doing. His little lover had done all that.

Well, maybe not little, Kurama though as he stared down at her. The girl had a strong build to her, and at the moment seemed incapable of looking at anything other than the ground. Using a gentle finger he tipped her head up to look at him.

"What exactly are your abilities?" he asked her.

"Um…" she started. It took her a moment to find the right words. She hated talking about herself. "I can control and manipulate the energy around me, although I had to have Yami provide me with the energy sense there isn't any in this room. To put it simply I took Yami's energy, mixed it with some of my own and created the barrier. A little rearranging and it was formed into those restraints. Which reminds me," she trailed off as she focused on the energy that still held Korran's broken lifeless body. It came back to her as a large glowing sphere before quickly separating into four equal portions. "Stand still," she requested. The four spheres of energy absorbed into the four abused fighters and their injuries instantly healed.

"Wow, I feel so much better," Yusuke commented as he enjoyed the feeling of a newly repaired head.

"Same here," Kuwabara agreed as he gingerly tried out his now healed leg.

Kurama did not care how he was physically. There was something much more important he was rejoicing over. He was happy, unbelievably happy. In fact he could not remember the last time he had felt this way. He had found the love he had always been looking for and the prospect of a bright future loomed over them.

The group did not hang around too long, too eager to get out of the place. Retracing their steps they uneventfully made their way back to where their ride was graciously waiting for them. About half way to their destination they were forced to make camp due to darkness and exhaustion. They had actually managed to find their way back to the first campground the Reiki Tantei had made in the field of bramble.

"Man it will be good to get some real food when we get home," Mike sighed as he sucked on an orange. "Like a big greasy pizza."

"I'm just looking forward to home in general," Aryn commented.

"Me too," Jamie agreed. "I wonder if-oh…" she stopped in the middle of her sentence and downcast her face.

"What?" Kurama asked as he placed a hand on her shoulder. "Don't you want to go home?" She looked up at him with worry filled eyes.

"Of course I do," she answered him. "But I don't want to leave you."

"Why would you…" he trailed off as realization hit him. He had forgotten that they lived on different sides of the globe. He smiled reassuringly at her. "How about we worry about that once we get there." After all this, something as simple as distance could not…well…distance them.

"Ok," she smiled before snuggling up against his side, her child like ignorance showing through once again.

"Hey Kurama," Yusuke called over to them. "I take it you two are an item now." Kurama nodded as he wrapped an arm around his lover.

"As crudely as that was put, yes," he answered truthfully.

"You dog," Yusuke smirked at him.

"Yusuke," Kurama gasped in a fake affronted gesture. "I am a fox, not a dog." Yusuke just started laughing.

"Somehow I don't see that as being any better," he gasped out. Kurama could only laugh along with his friend with his lovers reassuring warmth pressed against his side.

They all fell asleep in reasonably the same fashion as before, each person wrapped in a large leaf for warmth, but there were a few distinct differences. There were eighteen in their group this time, the presence of fear and apprehension were missing, and two of their members were not sleeping alone but instead wrapped snuggly around each other under the leaf they shared. Jamie had never felt so comfortable or so happy in her life as when she was drifting to sleep with the fox's strong arms around her and her face cuddled into his chest. She felt safe and that was something she would always cherish. Of course the dangers of Kurama's job as a member of the Reiki Tantei were not overlooked, and she knew she would worry every time he went out on a mission. However for right now they were all safe and she wasn't going to let tomorrow's clouds shadow today.

The rest of their journey back to their transport went without a hitch and soon enough the group was reunited with the Speed Demons that had been waiting for them.

"Hey Kurama, I see everything went as planed," Cougar called as the group rounded the rise.

"Cougar," Kurama called back. "I can truly say I have never been so happy to see you." The group reached the waiting Speed Demons and Cougars eyes noticeably widened at the sight of how large the group was.

"Well Kurama I've got to hand it to you, when you need job dome you really do provide a job, not that I mind the challenge, there should be enough room to accommodate though I dare say your going to be as smitten as sardines." The first thing Kurama's mind registered was the surprising fact that none of the humans seemed to be thrown off by Cougars way of talking. He would just chock it up as an American teenager thing. The second thing was relief that Cougar would be able to handle the large group.

"I take it that means you can transport all of us," he asked, just to be sure. With a nod in answer Cougar began to coordinate their transportation. It was really a simple matter off all five Speed Demons putting there energy together and forming what looked like a giant moving platform that was just big enough to hold all of them; with only mere inches to spare, although no one complained about the cramped conditions. After the hell they had just escaped, anything willing to take them away from this place was a golden chariot.

"Cougar, I thank you immensely for your help," Kurama told the Speed Demon as everyone filled off, having finally reached their destination.

"You can thank me all you want," Cougar responded. "Just as long as the proper payment is included in that thanks then everything is chipper."

"Of course," Kurama responded with gusto. "It's already on its way." Once affirmed of their due payment, and after some brief farewells, the gang of Speed Demons took off again towards the next destination of their never ceasing lives.

They had been dropped off at the exact spot where the Reiki Tantei had originally been deposited in this world. However this time, instead of a portal there was a small glowing sphere hanging in mid air.

"This should be the remnants of the portal that Koenma left for us," Kurama thought out loud. The rest of the group hung back in silence. After several moments of nothing Yusuke decided to take the initiative. Stepping forward he tentatively reached forward and grasped the sphere in his palm. It immediately began to pulsate and grow eventually forming a large flat oval with different shades of blue and purple swimming through it. "Yep, that's the portal," Yusuke said with a grin after seeing the results of his action. Without a moments more hesitation the whole group filtered through the hole in space to thankfully return to their own world and leave this current one behind, they had had more than enough of it.

The portal landed them, rather roughly, in a pile on a hard wood floor.

"It's seems you brats just keep piling up in my home," a slightly withered voice spoke from somewhere off to the side. Yusuke was the first to locate the speaker so, likewise, was the first to recognize the speaker.

"Grandma!" he shouted, making it painfully obvious where they were; Genkai's temple. After a moment of shuffling and untangling, the group righted its self and managed to stand up strait. "Why are we here," Yusuke asked once he had de-pretzeled himself.

"Koenma thought it would be easier if you returned here rather than Spirit world," she answered bluntly. Walking over to the group she looked them all over before continuing. "It's lucky for you I was expecting a large group and have enough rooms for you all, I'm assuming you are all tired." Without a word of argument they were all led to the rooms they had been given and each immediately located the bed in the room they had been given and instantly feel asleep.

Everything after that seemed to happen it a blur. Things were set up to take them back to America, parents in the aforementioned country were informed of their children's condition, and Seth had something very important to say to Yami.

"Hey, um…Yami," he called her aside, which she eagerly obliged. Once alone Seth seemed to hesitate, unsure of what to say. "Um…you…you went to a lot of trouble to save me, so I'll start out with thanking you," he hesitated again and Yami patiently waited for him to continue, oblivious to the blow that was to come. "And you went through a lot of pain to help me," he continued. "But, well I guess I'll just say this bluntly. I can't take this."

Yami dead panned. What did he mean he couldn't take it? He could not mean…no, she must have heard it wrong, or was misinterpreted. Seth must have sensed that she was confused for he went on to explain further.

"All of these changes, the powers, the sheer abnormality of everything. I can't deal with it, it's too much. I…I'm going to have to leave. Not just you but I need to distance myself from everyone and everything involved in this…this insanity. You know pretend it was all a dream and it never really happened, forget it all." At this point he ran out of words and stopped although Yami had already grasped what he was saying. He was going to leave her and the conviction in his dead eyes told her that there would be no stopping him from walking out of her life.

"O-ok," was all she managed to choke out before turning on her heal and retreating as quickly as possible. This was something she could not deal with, not now. Once she made it to the room she was currently occupying she locked the door, shut the windows and settled herself into the dark niche to allow her heart to grieve in silence, she cried.

Jamie was also by herself, and oddly enough contemplating a problem along the same line as Yami's. The sound of a throat being cleared came from behind her, and she instantly knew it was Kurama.

"Yes?" she asked him as she turned to face him.

"You're worried," he stated rather than asked, it was not a question. In response she nodded her head.

"I can't help it," she responded. "I'm going to have to go back to my home in America, but that will also mean leaving you behind." She sighed, unable to figure out what to do or say.

"You don't think I realized that," he asked suddenly, a playful sound to his voice. "Call me selfish, but I can let you run off and leave me." She waited impatiently for him to continue; not daring to get her hopes up, but finding herself unable to do anything else. "I've already talked to people," he finally continued. "And if you would like you and any of your friends who would like to could stay here. Your new talents give you quite a bit of power. We could train you and you could become part of our group."

Jamie could have cried she was so relieved. As soon as he finished talking to walked, or practically ran, right up to him. Half laughing she answered "Of course I want to stay," before indulging herself in a kiss.

It had been two hours sense Yami had locked herself in her room when a knock came from the door.

"Yami, can I come in?" Jamie's recognizable voice spoke. In response Yami stood up and unlocked the door allowing her friend passage. When Jamie entered it only took her a moment's glance to notice her friend was upset. "What's wrong?" she asked once she was seated in a chair near the concealed window. Yami quickly told her the event that had just transpired with her boyfriend, needing to bear her heart to someone. Surprisingly enough, when Yami finished speaking Jamie smiled.

"Well then he's a much bigger jerk than I thought he was," she mused before representing her own tale of the offer they had been made to stay. It only took Yami a moments hesitation before deciding that she too would like to remain in Japan, there really was not much for her in America.

In the end, along with Yami and Jamie, Erika, Stephanie, and Jessica decided to stay while the rest decided to return to America for one reason or another. Everyone returned to their homes to check in with worried families and if they were making the move to Japan then to pack and say goodbye.

It took a little convincing for the parents to let their children move to Japan, but with crafty persuasion the issue was settled and Jessica, Jamie, Erika, Stephanie, and Yami soon found themselves returning to Japan and moving into Genkai's temple where they would be trained and taught how to properly control their powers so that they could fight and eventually join the Reiki Tantei.

It had been three days sense the girls had moved in and Kurama was enjoying some private time with his new koi under a sakura tree in the garden. After only a couple of training sessions it became apparent that all of the girls had been taught for power but no actual technique or skill. All of them were being completely reeducated when to handling their powers.

"Kurama," Jamie's voice broke through the quiet.

"Hm," Kurama turned his attention to the girl leaning next to him.

"Will I get stronger?" she asked innocently. She knew her skill was no where near that of any of the members of the Reiki Tantei. The fox leaned down so that the tip of his nose just barely brushed hers before answering.

"Of course, in time, but until then I'll take care of you," he smiled at her and she smile back, content with the answer. Everything was finally starting to fall into place. Yami was slowly recovering from her broken heart that her bastard of a boyfriend had dealt her. Even after everything she had done to help him he just walked away like it meant nothing. Well it just proved that he was nowhere near good enough for her. Along with that the rest of them had finally found their place where they could enjoy happiness. They heard from their friends in America occasionally but all in all they were happy with where they were. Of course there would be more hard ships in the future, those were unavoidable, but until then they were going to enjoy what they had and all the blood and tears that had been shed to reach it.

The end

**THIS IS NOT THE END!**

There will be a sequel titled "**Shadow's of Magic.**" I know the concept is played out but I love Yu Yu Hakusho x Harry Potter crossovers so the characters of this story are going to Hogwarts. Read it if you want, reviews are appreciated, and no flames, I have creative license and I say they are going to Hogwarts. Woo Hoo!

See You Soon.

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